By Zweli Martin Dlamini
Africa-Press – Eswatini. Finance Minister Neal Rijikernberg is a giant businessman and therefore, he ought to understand better the operational dynamics of businesses including cash-flow and the significance of ensuring that emaSwati have money in their pockets to enhance buying power and then, fund the Government through the Value Added Tax (VAT) and other taxes.
Perhaps it important to state that, Government has been failing dismally, to implement policies seeking to grow the economy and address societal challenges and this, I would suggest, worsened the poverty situation, directly affecting the operations of many businesses.
In this country, a majority of emaSwati are jobless and those who were fortunate enough to secure employment, are paid low salaries.
On the other hand, those trying to earn a living through dagga farming sometimes face sad realities of having their dagga destroyed by the police acting on behalf of the current Tinkhundla Government whose ultimate objective, it has been proven, is to see ordinary citizens living in poverty.
Minister Rijikernberg accused retail companies of defrauding ERS and in fact, in his own words, he mentioned that the Eswatini Revenue Service (ERS) is facing a drastic decline in VAT collection within the retail sector.
The Finance Minister was speaking on his “Finance-in-Focus” online program this week and while his program remains informative and relevant, on this particular issue, he decided to be political while disregarding the challenges facing businesses and ordinary citizens in this country.
But even before suspecting fraud, we need to analyze the flow of monies within the retail sector, most supermarkets and grocery shops heavily rely on the ordinary citizens as customers and therefore, if a majority of the citizens are poor and unable to afford taxable commodities then, the tax base will collapse resulting in drastic decline in revenue collection.
VAT does not come from the ‘air’ but from the consumers, if the oppressive Eswatini Government has emptied the pockets of the citizens who support the supermarkets and grocery shops, paying tax in the process, the collection of VAT will definitely decline.
Recently, police invaded homes in the rural areas and destroyed dagga, all these State operations are designed to ensure that emaSwati are poor but on the other hand, Government is expecting an increase in revenue collection.
It is a fact that, a majority of emaSwati are poor, financially struggling and hardly visit shops to buy groceries.
But it’s not the Finance Minister in his personal capacity, the entire Tinkhundla regime has been delusional in this regard, operating based on false political belief not reality.
Where will the taxes including VAT come from if the citizens are forced deeper into poverty by the Tinkhundla undemocratic Government?.
In the political context, taxes are paid by the citizens including legal personas (businesses), but a foolish Government destroys businesses owned by emaSwati by delaying the payments for Government suppliers, approve Government Gazettes empowering companies to pay workers low salaries and then, expect an increase in Value Added Tax.
