-
A man holds a fuel nozzle at a petrol station.
SAFTU General-Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi says consumers should not bear the brunt of steep taxes while corporates enjoy huge profits without adequate contribution to the developmental agenda.
He has also condemned the National Treasury’s proposed fuel levy increase.
Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana announced the proposed levy in the budget that he tabled a week ago. Vavi says it will further burden struggling workers.
Speaking at the International Tax Reform Summit in Johannesburg yesterday, Vavi said: “There would have been such a hullabaloo about the VAT, but there is no hullabaloo about the 16-cent increase on the fuel levy as if it isn’t the same.”
“The poor, the working class, spend up to 60% of their income on transport and food. You add a 16-cent, all of a sudden in order to keep quiet all those who have been making noise about the VAT, you achieve exactly the same thing. The bottom line is that workers are going to be spending more to go to work.”
VIDEO | Proposed fuel levy increase rejected:
