Photo by: reuters
The South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Sacci) has indicated its eagerness to collaborate with National Treasury on refining and facilitating the implementation of an employment tax incentive.
A recent survey of Sacci members indicated “substantial” appetite for employing youth workers through the incentive, in businesses ranging from multinational corporations to small, medium-sized and micro enterprises, the industry body said following a breakfast meeting with Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan on Friday.
However, Sacci called for greater engagement between business and government in the fine-tuning of the incentive.
“Shared knowledge, experience and perspectives, as well as a collaborative mindset, will foster sustainable solutions for economic growth and development, and will ultimately contribute to financial freedom for more people in our country,” Stanlib CEO Thabo Dloti said.
Reiterating this position, Gordhan noted that business had a “crucial” role to play in the application of the Employment Tax Incentive, adding that the details of the incentive could be further refined based on business inputs.
“The challenge is to ask the tough questions on how to ensure that South Africa shifts to an effective cycle of investor confidence, economic growth and job creation,” he said, calling on business to concretise and communicate its concerns on red tape, particularly in areas within the jurisdiction of National Treasury or the South African Revenue Service.