Pretoria - Informal traders have joined the call for the government to remove taxes on chicken as a way of providing financial relief.
This is according to the SA Informal Traders’ Alliance, which represents more than two million informal and micro businesses across the country.
It said the traders believed the removal of tariff taxes and VAT from chicken products was needed, because the prices for this important food source were escalating.
Rosheda Muller, the national president of the alliance, said: “South Africans are really struggling financially. The cost of living seems to be rising to unsustainable levels, especially when you consider that wages are not moving in the same direction.
“Every single day we are seeing that another cost is going up; petrol, electricity, transport, and most importantly, food. Chicken is perhaps the most important part of our diet, and often the only meat that communities can afford.
“For this reason, the government would do well to consider removing both VAT and all other taxes that come in the form of tariffs, to help people survive.”
The most common products sold by informal traders and spaza shops include fruit and vegetables, chicken and eggs, dairy products, chips and cold drinks.
“What happens when a person can no longer afford a product is that they trade down, or just stop eating it. The problem is that the price of all nutrition-rich products eaten in poorer communities is going up,” said Muller.
“This includes the price of eggs (+15%), chicken feet (+10%), chicken gizzards (+15%) and liver (+32%), beef liver (+30%), beef (11%), wors (+11%), polony (21%), fish (7%), canned pilchards (9%), and, of course, chicken pieces (+11).”
The alliance argues that when food prices increase to these levels, people go hungry and do not get the nutrient-rich foods they need to stay healthy.
“If the government can help bring down the price of chicken taxes and levies, it would have a profound impact on people’s ability to afford this most important food category, and it would help ensure that communities, primarily those in low-income areas, are able to put a plate of nutritional food on the family table at night.”
Pretoria News