Africa-Press – Eswatini. The levy on each tonne of sucrose supplied to and accepted by a miller will now be E10.
Sucrose is a naturally occurring sugar found in various amounts in plants like fruits, vegetables and nuts, but can also be produced commercially from sugar cane and sugar beets.
In exercise of powers conferred by Section 4 of the Cane Growers Act, 1967; minister of agriculture, on the recommendation of the Eswatini Cane Growers Association, issued the notice of the new levy.
It is effective April 1, 2024 as per the Legal Notice No.345 of 2023 which was published on the Eswatini Government Gazette.
The levy is currently at E9 per tonne, which reflects an increment of about 11 per cent, come April 1 next year..
“The due date of the levy in respect of each delivery of sucrose during any mill-month shall be the 10th after the last day of such mill-month,” reads the notice in part.
It further highlighted that in the absence of satisfactory proof to the contrary, the miller would be deemed to have accepted sucrose on the date of delivery of such sucrose to him.
“For the purpose of the notice, the expression ‘mill-month’ has the meaning assigned to it by the Schedule to the Sugar Act, 1967,” reads another part of the notice.
It indicated that millers would deduct the amount of the levy imposed on each cane grower from the periodic payments made to such grower for sucrose supplied by him/her and shall remit the amounts of such levy to the Eswatini Cane Growers Association by the due date.
Eswatini Cane Growers Association CEO Sipho Nkambule confirmed the review of the levy, clarifying that the association as well as the minister did not just wake up and decide to increase the levy.
“The decision to increase the levy was made during the association’s annual general meeting held on August 30,” said Nkambule.
He said the increase was agreed to by the association’s members after presentations were made on the present circumstances, the budget, expenses and strategic plans.
“The major factor which contributed to the decision to increase the levy was mainly the reduction in tonnes of sucrose over the past three years,’ said Nkambule.
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