ANC’S Sims document flags rental tax on mining
It goes on to say that the study proposed that South Africa rather investigate “the desired outcomes of state control” in terms of a rent share – on super profits – growth and development “and make targeted interventions to achieve such outcomes”.
The royalty rental tax is a highly controversial tax with which Australia has already battled. It brought down former prime minister Kevin Rudd.
But Sims argues that numerous countries are doing it. Zambia tried it, not so successfully, Sims acknowledges. Australia is in the process of introducing a resource rent tax for hard rock minerals, it reports. Botswana captures a surplus value through a formula tax, as well as a 50 percent share in Debswana, while Chile has a 100 percent state holding in Codelco.
The idea is that the tax will only kick in once there is “a reasonable return”.
One should turn this idea on its head and demand that politicians show the way by providing a reasonable return to the electorate and setting caps on their conspicuous – and crass – consumption.
Standard Bank
What was all the hullabaloo a few years back about the so-called revolutionary Mzansi account, which was meant to attract the unbanked of this country?
It is a low income transactional banking account. Be that as it may, it failed to attract enough customers to be profitable. Now Standard Bank has launched a mobile Accessaccount, which it says is competitive, transparent and accessible.
Leon Barnard, Standard Bank’s director of inclusive banking, says there is R12 billion lying “under mattresses”, adding that 22 million South Africans earn less than R3 000 a month and of these, 66 percent are unbanked.
Standard Bank attracted 110 000 new customers last month from the unbanked to this account, the bank said yesterday.
Peter Schlebusch, the lender’s chief executive of personal and business banking, says the country had 14 million banked people in 2002 and the current figure is 20 million. It is estimated that this will rise to 28 million bankable people.
Barnard says the bank will phase out the Mzansi account as customers migrate to the Accessaccount.
He added that Mzansi was not profitable and was a pressure on the bank.
Schlebusch says: “We’ve built on the experiences of our eplan account, and the Mzansi initiative, which was our first initiative with inclusive banking.
“The new Accessaccount will have no monthly management fee, nor will it require minimum balance and has a highly competitive fee structure. Importantly, this account provides real value to customers, encouraging them to use it to transact rather than just deposit and withdraw salaries.”
The bank says the pilot has proven to be very successful, with 824 mobile sales consultants selling accounts on a daily basis.
Barnard says the Accessaccount is not a low-income account but a high-value account, providing relevant banking services for customers with an income of up to R8 000 a month.
City development
In a quiet hotel in a quiet side street in Stellenbosch last Friday, almost 100 of the country’s top local government leaders were listening to the fascinating story of city development as told by a former mayor of Colombia’s capital city, Bogotà.
For many of the delegates attending the eight-day course run by UCT and the World Bank Institute, Enrique Peñalosa’s suggestion that the South African government buy up land adjacent to growing cities seemed to be as appealing as it was radical.
Peñalosa was certainly persuasive when it came to arguing the need for South Africa to address the rapid growth in informal developments around every one of our large cities.
Without dealing with this issue, the country would not realise its economic growth potential, Peñalosa said.
The following day our local government leaders listened to the former mayor of the Bolivian capital La Paz talk about the “La Paz case study”. It was subtitled, “The possibilities of reforming cities rapidly – responding to the technical and adaptive challenges”.
As both speakers stressed, what is currently happening in South Africa is not entirely new; it is a local variation of similar developments that were evident in South America some years ago.
However, the eight-day course is not about being entertained; it is about learning how best – and quickly – cities can be built to become globally competitive.
And, reflecting the Treasury’s involvement, the delegates are under pressure to produce the goods, however meagre. The Treasury’s Cities Support Programme includes panel reviews, each of which will culminate in a report that will be made publicly available.
The panel will comprise national and global experts.
The good news is that, judging by those in attendance, there are plenty of skills available at local government level. The programme is designed to ensure that there is the strategic leadership necessary to put all these skills to best use.