Amajuba Chamber of Commerce reviews budget speech

“Until the Government realises the inflation rates are not realistic, we cannot move forward.”

Businessmen convened at Newcastle Inn last Monday evening to hear Muhammad Seedat, founder of Smartrac, a national consulting firm, express his views regarding the national budget delivered by Minister of Finance, Nhlanhla Nene.

The discussion was hosted by Amajuba Chamber of Commerce and Industry, in conjunction with Standard Bank. Mr Seedat’s speech was about what business owners could expect during the upcoming year.

He felt inflation rates were concerning and business owners needed to plan accordingly to maintain solid capital foundation.

Furthermore, Mr Seedat was concerned South Africa was becoming a welfare state. “One out of three people are collecting welfare of some sort and this is not a sustainable solution to address unemployment,” he said.

He was adamant more focus should be put on creating enterprises and Governmental obstacles in registering businesses should be minimised.

Mr Seedat mentioned there was a marginal increase in tax and warned about a significant increase in “sins” tax, which would mean that smokers would be shelling out more cash.

All in all, he said the budget was not an aggressive one and encouraged businesses to take full advantage of Africa’s available natural resources and opportunities such as Durban harbour, when it came it importing and exporting goods to save on costs.

Referring to the financial situation in America and Russia, he said South Africa was very fortunate to have low Value Added Tax (VAT).

“No supertax bracket was introduced and no increase in VAT,” he said.

South Africa could only aspire to attain growth such as in the United States and China, and business owners should think outside the box, he concluded.