Africa-Press – Eswatini. Minister of Finance Neal Rijkenberg has indicated that Eswatini is currently ranked seventh in the world on inequality.
This was revealed by the minister during the debate and adoption of the ministry’s portfolio committee report on the Income Tax (Amendment) Bill in the House of Assembly on Monday.
The minister welcomed the support from the ministry’s portfolio committee and the Members of Parliament in passing the Bill.
He said there were extensive deliberations on the bill and as a ministry they had an opportunity to hear all the different sides and views on the propositions.
“This income tax bill was not bringing any more tax to government but was to get the balance batter. In equality we are ranked too high as we are currently ranked seventh in the world and this bill was trying to correct that, at the same time trying to make the country more attractive and at the same time trying not to lose tax,” said the minister.
He said the Bill was aiming at taking away some of the incentives and reducing the corporate tax on the company side and on the personal side, increasing the highest earners income tax and at the same time reducing the amount of tax on the lowest earners.
He acknowledged that there was only one person who spoke for the proposed 36 per cent income tax and all those involved in the deliberations were against it.
“We do fully understand that under the current situation in the country, which ever class or level you are, things are tough and tight with all the different economic issues we are facing in the country,” said the minister.
He said as government they were projecting to be getting less tax revenue because a lot of the increases were not allowed in the current proposal.
He said at the same time government was not looking at the lower tax brackets.
He said all in all they believed this was a tough balancing act but as a ministry they did believed the country could survive within recommendations made.
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