Mister President, you have rightly reminded us that employment creation is mainly the responsibility of the private sector.

I have again received many tips on the challenges faced by small and medium-sized businesses. Sharon Bosii, from Pretoria, suggests that government “must offer incentives … to help small businesses.” Sharon, we agree. This budget allocates R6.5 billion over three years to support small and medium enterprises.

We have also accepted two recommendations of the Judge Davis Tax Committee which will ease the compliance burden of small businesses:

•        The turnover tax regime will be amended to further reduce the tax burden on micro-enterprises.

Amendments will be made to the venture capital company tax regime, and the rules related to access to foreign capital will be eased to enhance support for entrepreneurial development.

Subject to appropriate tax treatment, amendments will be made to the intellectual property rules as part of this reform.

In further support of entrepreneurial development, we propose to provide tax relief to organisations involved in small enterprise development through grant-making. As a complementary measure, grants received by small and medium-sized enterprises will be tax exempt, regardless of the source of funds.