Small business gets a charge out of the Budget

Small business has welcomed the Budget, saying the marginal relief from tax increases and the changes to the electricity regulatory framework were positive. Pieter Bensch, the executive vice-president for Africa and the Middle East at Sage, said Finance Minister Tito Mboweni’s Budget speech offered small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) reason to feel both relief, due to the lack of growth-dampening tax increases, and cautious optimism about the prospects for economic recovery over the next two years. Guy Hosking, the chief financial officer at SME funder Retail Capital, said the marginal relief on income taxes, which would put more spend back into consumers’ pockets, should be positive SMEs, and provided a boost for growing the economy.