KATE THOMPSON DAVY: Go, go, Malatsi, go!
The communications minister is right in trying to make smartphones more affordable for citizens to participate in the digital economy
Designer handbags, high-end motor vehicles, sleek yachts, imported perfumery and smartphones — one of these things is the odd-one-out of the luxury goods category, and it isn’t yachts.
I read with interest this week a TechCentral article that reported GNU-ly appointed communications minister Solly Malatsi is planning to engage the National Treasury over the classification (for tax purposes) of smartphones (“particularly 4G devices”) as luxury goods. Smartphones are subject to VAT and import duties, but also a certain ad valorem duty that applies to luxury goods, costs that are invariably passed on to the consumer...
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