LETTER: Taxing the sun to punish citizens for SA’s failure
Eskom wants to penalise smart people who have moved to self-reliance because of load-shedding
I read that Eskom plans to tax SA citizens who have embarked on solar energy projects to compensate for the collapse of the national power supplier. The utility wants to penalise those smart people who have moved to self-reliance because of load-shedding and the horrendous price escalations.
Instead of encouraging the nation to buy solar systems (all of which should be locally made) and enable Eskom to concentrate on powering industry, these dreadful people want to penalise the solar revolution taking place because the country cannot rely on them any more.
How is this going to work? What about schools and hospitals and government institutions that have moved to install solar power? How will businesses like Macro be treated relative to the individual home? Remember, all people need to be treated equally, and the government can’t just impose such new taxes on private businesses and citizens as this is unconstitutional.
Every poor household should have a small solar system with an inverter and battery to become self-sufficient. Does the state intend to tax them? What about solar geysers, which Eskom enthusiastically subsidised some years ago? Are they now different? They still use the sun.
Taxing the sun is simply another Band-Aid to patch over the cracks of the corporate collapse of Eskom and so many municipalities. Unfortunately, it was only a matter of time before the ANC government decided to tax the sun instead of exploiting this free resource.
An air and breathing tax is inevitable. When will this cycle of punishing SA citizens for state failure end?
Andy Clay
Via email
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