04 Feb 2015

Batswana owned companies are still to benefit from the 30 per cent reserved for them under the Citizen Economic Empowerment Policy, the Botswana Confederation of Commerce, Industry and Manpower (BOCCIM) president has said. 

Speaking during the FNB budget analysis on February 3, Mr Leta Mosienyane said under the policy, 30 per cent of the projects was reserved for citizens who should be engaged as subcontractors. He said to date, the policy had not yet benefited anyone adding it was developed 10 years ago. 

Mr Mosienyane, who described the 2015/16 budget as excellent, said he was surprised that although the Minister of Finance and Development Planning had talked about research and development, he did not elaborate further as funding had not been provided. 

The research and development was developed 10 years ago but nothing had happened, he said.  He said BOCCIM expected the budget to address issues of employment creation and major investments in key areas of energy, water and education. 

All these had been addressed as the Ministry of Minerals, Energy and Water Resources had been allocated a lion’s share of the development budget while the Ministry of Education and Skills Development has been given a bulk of the recurrent budget. 

This has led the BOCCIM President to describe the budget as excellent as it also carried a modest surplus of P1.23 billion.  Mr Mosienyane said investment in key areas will create jobs but said it was important that permanent employment was created beyond the construction phase. 

He however said the minister did not set targets for reducing unemployment and also did not recognse the role of the private sector in funding and delivery of infrastructure. 

The minister also did not mention huge projects such as the Trans Kalahari Railway and Kazungula Bridge.  There was also no feedback on performance of various levies. 

For his part, a Partner at Pricewaterhouse Coopers Mr Rudi Binedell said the minister did not announce changes in tax saying however reforms were needed such as the introduction of e-filing.

The tax environment underwent reform last year when certain foods and farming machinery were exempted from Value Added Tax (VAT) but the implantation was only done at the beginning of this year. 

He further said there were hidden taxes as new bodies such as NBIFIRA, BOFINET and BOCRA were required to raise their own funding hence the fees they charge.  Mr Binedell said Botswana Unified Revenue Services (BURS) has been reinforced and has become bold. 

Despite lack of changes, Mr Binedell said Botswana would continue to make revenue from taxes as BURS had improved and people who previously did not pay tax now pay and those who did pay more.  BURS had started to bite as it conduct audits also shares information with their global counterparts. 

FNB South Africa Chief Economist said the local economy would be affected by slowed growth in China which had resulted with low prices on commodities and also low fuel prices. ENDS