Govt to support small business
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By Lerema Pheea
Small Business, Cooperatives, and Marketing Minister Machesetsa Mofomobe have said his Ministry is committed to supporting small businesses to grow so that they can afford to pay taxes.
At an opening of a policy validation workshop, the minister said it is important for businessmen to work together in order for the business policy to be implemented and to protect it.
He further encouraged the representative of business associations present at the workshop to prefer to work together for their success in every sector of their business they are in.
The Ministry’s Principal Secretary Bereng Makotoko said the Ministry has been engaged to write a proposal whereby they were looking at the places that are good to be used for selling; the places that have electricity, network and the good capacity of people.
He also said that they are about to finalize the policy in order to proofread it as one of the policies that can be trusted for promoting the progress of small businesses.
“It is through your help in identifying the places that have a good market and we will work for hand in hand with the local government so that they can release a certificate of use in order to fight the of an issue whereby the municipal suspending business from their location,” said Makotoko.
One of the public servants of the Ministry Kemong Masupha said that the owners of the business ought to be taught how to use automation systems at customs while paying their tax at the borders so that would be easier for them to pay.
Among concerns that were raised by some of the participants at the validation, the workshop was that it appears like the policy was constructed without any small businesses and stakeholders’ consultations because some of the policies are too far from the reality facing small businesses.
They argued that some things that are essential are left out; citing as an example the time the Chinese-owned businesses are allowed to operate must be included inside the policy so that it can be regulated.
They said that during the first lockdown, they were able to sell well because the time was scheduled from morning to the evening for the Chinese to close therefore, they will take much time to do their work.
