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Tax Justice South Africa (TJSA) on Wednesday condemned the announcement by government’s national command council on coronavirus (Covid-19) that sale of cigarettes and tobacco products will remain prohibited next month when South Africa enters level four of the nationwide lockdown, reversing last week's announcement that cigarettes will be sold from 1 May.
“The ill-thought prohibition of cigarettes is impoverishing the nation, enriching criminals and destroying the public’s faith in the lockdown. The government is throwing away R35 million every day in taxes at a time when its citizens are starving,” TJSA founder Yusuf Abramjee, said in a statement on Wednesday.
"Meanwhile, criminals are pocketing that money by luring South Africa’s 11 million smokers to the black market,” Abramjee said.
“This is life-endangering economic sabotage that hands trade to the organized syndicates who flourished under SA’s decade of ruinous leadership.
"Illicit cigarettes are flooding the market at massively inflated prices, delivering no tax to the country and actively increasing the movement of people – the very thing the lockdown is supposed to prevent.”
Abramjee said after 34 days of lockdown and prohibition of the sale of cigarettes, the South African government knows that the illicit economy is flourishing.
“Government knows the illicit economy is booming. Earlier this week, a report by the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) found that one in four informal settlement residents have been able to buy cigarettes, and illegal traders have been cashing in nationwide,” Abramjee said.
“The HSRC recommended that urgent measures be taken to combat the problem of illegal trade. But Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma’s announcement contradicts that advice, spurns vital revenue and permits crime to thrive.”
Last week, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that South Africa will be slightly easing the lockdown regulations from the current level five to a level four from May 1 and that the sale of cigarettes will resume.
On Wednesday night, however, the minister of cooperative governance and traditional affairs (Cogta), Dlamini Zuma, announced government’s u-turn on the matter.
Dlamini Zuma said smoking would encourage the spread of the novel coronavirus.
- African News Agency (ANA)
