The SA Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Sacci) said on Tuesday it was hoping the minister of finance will not be increasing corporate and personal income tax.
Pravin Gordhan will be delivering the Budget speech on Wednesday.
Sacci said it would like to see how “radical economic transformation” would be interpreted in the 2017 Budget speech.
Gordhan is delivering his Budget at a time when South Africa is experiencing subdued economic growth, with the outlook for 2017 revised downwards by the Reserve Bank to 1.1 percent from a previous outlook of 1.2 percent.
Sacci believed increasing corporate and personal income tax would be regressive as this could serve only to increase costs and discourage expansion through capital investment in productive capacity.
“This inevitably will lead to a rise in inflation as corporate would increase prices to ameliorate the additional tax burden,” Sacci warned.
“Sacci would like to see a more effective allocation of resources, be they human or capital in speeding up the implementation of the infrastructure projects, especially in the area of energy, logistics (rail, road, sea and air) and telecommunications.”
The business chamber said it would like the Budget to address SMMEs and how the Treasury will be gearing finances directly to their development, especially in mass job-absorbing co-operative initiatives.
Saci also said it would like to see how the Budget addresses the decline of employment in the mining and construction industries, and how growing sectors can be assisted to create more jobs.