Times Of Swaziland: WE ARE VICTIMS OF GOVT SPENDING

WE ARE VICTIMS OF GOVT SPENDING
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By Thabiso Dlamini on 11/07/2018 04:26:00


ESWATINI is quick to emulate South Africa on economic instruments that tax
citizens and increase the financial burden on consumers. South Africa increased
VAT as of April 1, 2018 and likewise Eswatini followed suit and proposed to
increase VAT from 14 per cent to 15 per cent so that it is at par with the
mighty South African VAT system.
Now, fuel prices are always higher in South Africa compared to Eswatini, and our
government wants to capitalise on that as well to make a quick buck. For
Eswatini, fuel tax is quite a considerable source of government revenue and so
an increase of E3.20 per litre of petrol or diesel would certainly see fuel tax
revenue hitting the E1 billion mark, hence more money for our government. What
will become of the people who use public transport every day, commuting to work
and school across the country? Some people are working just to have enough money
to pay rent and transport. Everything else in terms of food, clothing,
healthcare, etc, is not guaranteed.
The money gauging tax policies government has tabled for 2018/19 will simply
kick a lot of people to the curb. If you are not a politician, bureaucrat,
wealthy businessmen or senior manager of some corporation, then you should be
thinking of an exit strategy. What our government is quick to forget is that
South Africa is a big economy, and one of Africa’s leading economies. South
Africa has the luxury to wiggle around with different tax policies to meet
different economic goals. At the same time, while the South African Government
takes money from its citizen or consumers in the form of taxes, it is also not
shy to give that money back to its citizens.
South Africa affords its citizens old age pensions, child support grants, care
dependency grants, disability grants, cutting-edge public hospitals,
Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP), and a National Student Financial
Aid Scheme to cover the cost of studies in public universities.
This is not to say South Africa is without its challenges, it certainly has
plenty but at least the citizens in that country have a few guarantees that make
their lives a little bit better.
Here in Eswatini, government just takes money from its citizens and businesses
and never gives back anything in return. Really, what guarantees do we get from
our government?
It always gets into frenzy when it has to pay elderly grants; the European Union
has pulled the plug on Free Primary Education, government has no scholarships
for tertiary education unless you are a child of a senior government official or
you are well-connected within the Ministry of Education and Training and the
Ministry of Labour and Social Security. If you are unlucky (God forbid), and
become really sick, needing medical specialists and specialised care, our public
hospitals will only put you on a drip and start counting down hours to your
death. And when people try to start their own businesses to take care of
themselves, there are hurdles and obstacles of government red tape to get
through. In the process, people still have to grease the powers that be in
making sure that their business licences go through.
One thing is guaranteed in Eswatini: government will take your money, blow it,
and come back to dig in your pockets for more money to flush down the toilet. We
will continue to get more soldiers, warders, and police officers even in the
worst of the fiscal crisis.
Really, we have become victims of government spending because it wastes money
and we, as taxpayers, have to dig into our pockets to bail out government. The
sad part of it is that no matter how much or how high government can keep on
increasing taxes, it will continue to spend the money on items that have nothing
to do with improving the lives of emaSwati. Where does all the money go?
As a country we are heavily reliant on donor funds to even take care of our
basic needs such as health and education. When government has to build roads, it
has to look at loans and all kinds of grants to make things happen. So with the
increase in taxes and more of our personal incomes being dedicated filling the
G-wallet of our cash-strapped government, what guarantee do we have that it will
spend that money on the right things that add value to our individual lives? We
are tax victims here and something’s got to give. We cannot keep funding a
hole that never fills. Government must first put its house in order before
demanding more money from workers, businesses and consumers.