Cattle farmers decry �impoverishing� new tax
Friday, November 06, 2015
From July next year farmers will be obliged to pay a four percent tax on cattle sales
With the new Income Tax (Amendment) Act of 2015, government has exempted the Botswana Meat Commission (BMC) from the 15% taxation and replaced it with four percent tax on money paid to farmers for the supply of cattle deducted as withholding tax.
BNBPU chairperson, Madongo Direng said although it is a good move for the government to do away with taxation of the BMC on gross income derived from sale of meat and meat products, it is “totally unacceptable” to replace it with taxation of the cattle farmers on gross income derived from the sale of cattle for slaughter or feeding.
According to both the acting director of Veterinary Services, Kobedi Segale and acting Lands and Agriculture minister, Edwin Dikoloti, the virus currently raging through the North-East mostly likely first entered the country during the festive season.From the “unprecedented” number of cases picked in testing last week, it is likely that cattle and other livestock could have been infected last year, without being reported.Animal health...