The South African Canegrowers Association has welcomed the decision of Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana regarding delaying a sugar tax increase by 12 months. The health promotion levy was supposed to come into effect from 1st of April.
Thomas Funke, CEO of SA Canegrowers Association said, “This will help to save job losses for thousands of people. The postponement of the tax for one year has allowed us to find an alternative that would help in maintaining employment for this year.”
He said, “The increase in sugar tax would have crippled the sugar industry which is already under financial burden due to increased input costs, especially of diesel and fertilizers.”
“We usually depend on labourers to harvest sugarcane which is around 20 million tonnes every year. We cannot harvest cane using machinery as it is expensive as well as the topography is not suitable for mechanical harvesting,” Funke further added.
