18 Mar 2013

Palapye Technical College (PATECO) together with Business Minds group club hosted the first entrepreneurial pitso.

The pitso was held to enlighten PATECO business students on how to establish and run a business after completing their studies.

Speaking at the pitso in Palapye, Botswana Unified Revenue Services (BURS) official Mr Moatlhodi Tsie said it was important for students who aspire to be entrepreneurs to be conversant with issues of taxation.

He said Botswana Unified Revenue Service(BURS) was responsible for collecting revenue from business owners as well as workers saying that there were different types of Tax namely income tax and value added tax (VAT).

He said the income tax was paid by business owners at a rate of 22 per cent and workers at a rate of 0-25 per cent depending on how much they earned monthly, adding that  an employee paid below P3 000 was excluded from paying tax.

Mr Tsie said it was important for people eligible to pay tax to register with BURS so that they were provided with a tax number.

Moreover, he explained that income tax was paid by business owners regardless of whether they made profit or loss adding that the owners should take into consideration that it was important to keep records to assess how the business was performing.

Mr Tsie noted that there was also the value added tax which was charged on the consumption of goods and services by the final consumer charged at 12 per cent.

He also said a tax clearance certificate was issued to companies to do tenders for different organisations and only provided and certified by the BURS, saying that the certificate was valid for 12 months.

Representing Citizen Entrepreneurial Development Agency (CEDA) Ms Olebogeng Ntseane explained that CEDA provided financial assistance to unemployed citizens aged 18 years and above.

She said they funded various businesses be it agri-business, property and manufacturing and services.

However she pointed out that before they funded business owners they consider things such as the management, market, profitability and security of the proposed business.

She urged the youth to have patience when starting businesses extending a helping hand to youth who would like to apply for business funding. ENDS