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Commercial public enterprises should go into partnerships with private sector companies, recommends chamber

Commercial public enterprises should go into partnerships with private sector companies, recommends chamber

The Namibia Chamber of Commerce and Industry (NCCI) recently held a consultative meeting with Finance Minister Ipumbu Shiimi and National Planning Commissioner Oberth Kandjoze through which the Chamber recommended that commercial public enterprises (PEs) go into partnerships with private sector firms.

This comes in the midst of concerns about the never-ending subsidization of PEs by taxpayers, the Chamber said. “NCCI suggests PEs go into partnerships with private companies. Then they will also pay tax which government needs to fund social programmes such as building and resourcing schools and clinics,” said Victoria Joel, Vice Chairperson of NCCI’s Ondangwa branch.

The consultative meeting took place last week in Oshakati as the NCCI recommended that Minister Shiimi and his team supported by the National Planning Commission, launch national taxation educational exercise in all 14 regions to encourage tax payment and compliance.

The Chamber urged that this should be utilized as a strategy to improve operational efficiency and help parastatals run profitably. “A good starting point is the green schemes. Also, TransNamib and other PEs including NBC, NHE, NWR, and the waterfront companies in Katima Mulilo and Lüderitz”, added Joel.

“MTC was listed on the Namibian Stock Exchange and the government remains the main shareholder, but Namibians were given a chance to buy shares. And recently MTC declared a dividend against profit, making it is a win-win for all,” Joel emphasized.

NCCI Chief Executive, Charity Mwiya said in a statement, “The NCCI underscored that such an educational campaign should not only be in Namibia’s official language English, but in the indigenous language or languages spoken in a region as in this way it will have maximum impact.”

“The proposed campaign should also be run on local radio stations, newspapers, and for younger Namibians on social media platforms,” Joel suggested. She also bemoaned the fact that there are just too many business-unfriendly rules and regulations.

Meanwhile, the NCCI urged the finance minister to direct that his officials work closely with other ministries in the economic cluster when drafting policies before enacting them.

“Other contributions concerned the high customs and excise duty set against the importation of vintage clothing. It was suggested that government reviews the charge per kg and as a motivation, attention was drawn to the fact that selling vintage clothing is the only income of many micro-enterprises.”

NCCI also pointed out that tax matters, including compliance and failure to make payments, remain a concern.


Victoria Joel, Vice Chairperson of NCCI Ondangwa Branch with Hon Ipumbu Shiimi, Finance Minister, at the recent business consultative session in Oshakati


 

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