Cosatu delivers ultimatum to scrap VAT
PARLIAMENT was given seven days by trade union federation Cosatu to respond to the memorandum they handed over last night at a vigil to protest the VAT increase.
“The vigil is about government’s decision to increase VAT because if you increase the VAT, the poorest of the poor suffer and this increase essentially means an increase in the cost of living such as food and bus tariffs, and we are saying there are other ways to fill up the fiscus,” provincial secretary Malvern de Bruyn said.
“We are saying if they don’t give us a proper answer to the memorandum, we will have no choice but to take to the street with our members and protest,” he said.
“The VAT increases are having a devastating effect on workers and communities, and Cosatu is calling for it to be withdrawn.
“The committee looking at the zero rating of additional products is delaying the relief that workers urgently need, and the fact that it was implemented with little consideration to the poor must be overturned,” De Bruyn added.
“Cosatu urges the government to reduce VAT immediately and to consider additional ways to make up the budget shortfall.
“Workers and the poor cannot be the victims of the rising prices, as companies just pass the cost on and it all ends up on the workers’ cost of consumer goods,” the memorandum states.