SBA boss wants tax ease for small businesses

By Jenique Belgrave

Chief Executive Officer of the Small Business Association (SBA) Lynette Holder is hoping for a tax ease for the sector in the upcoming Budget.
She expressed that wish as she raised concerns about the high level of taxation placed on “practically all major inputs of business”.
“There are taxes on agriculture and agri-processing, there is the sewage levy, taxes on fuel at the pump, the pandemic levy, and we anticipate soon that electricity rates will go up. So all of these are compounding the difficulties small businesses are facing and we need a reprieve from these,” Holder said in an interview with Barbados TODAY.
Noting that access to finance continued to be a problem for some SBA members, she also said the Budget, which is to be delivered by Prime Minister Mia Mottley on Tuesday, should speak on what provisions will be made to improve the capitalisation of traditional agencies like Fund Access and the Barbados Trust Fund Limited to finance MSMEs.
The SBA head also wants the Government to look into creating a regulatory framework allowing Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) to monetise their operations in the digital environment.
Holder said there is still much to be done to provide the platform for small firms to digitalise their services to trade in the global space, and expressed the hope this will be addressed in the upcoming budget.
“Even though we are in this digital environment, it is still very challenging for small firms to trade using the digital platforms because . . . we do not have the regulatory framework that will allow for businesses to be able to access these platforms to promote their goods and services,” she said.
“It is very costly – not just monetarily but otherwise – for example, to use YouTube and some of the other platforms…. We don’t have the country partnerships in place that would allow for the ease of small firms to use these platforms to trade. So, if there is anything that can be done from a regulatory perspective to really facilitate this digital revolution, then this is something that can be a focus of the budget in 2023 because we are unable to monetize the digital space,” Holder added.
The SBA head urged that while the Government seeks to address this lack of a framework, similar attention must also be paid to cybersecurity, as she pointed to the attacks that have affected both private and public sector organisations in recent times.
“There must be some improvement in the regulatory regime relative to this whole notion of cybersecurity and protecting our digital assets and the like. Granted this is not the traditional type of economics, but if we are able to improve the regulatory regime we believe strongly that it can improve the way business is done using technology.
“We still don’t have that secure enough environment to facilitate trade so there are clearly issues that we hope the Government will contemplate as we look to improve the business environment. These are facilitatory issues that will help with improving how business is done in the country,” Holder said.
jeniquebelgrave@barbadostoday.bb