I now turn to the issue of duty on basic commodities. As Government we will do whatever we can to make sure that basic commodities are affordable to our citizens. So we always try especially when prices shoot up, we will open borders. We have seen that is almost like our default reaction because we think that is the only way to support our citizens to access cheaper commodities when we open up. We are also aware that we do not want to kill our industry. I heard the plea from the sugar sector for example and we will be careful.
This is why whenever we open up borders, it is always temporary and it is never permanent. We open and we close and we watch the price. We have done the same right now with fertilizer. Initially, we allowed the manufacturers only to import when we realised that they will not reduce their prices. Cabinet made a decision to say any farmer can import fertilizer. Of course, there is a limit cap and that was helpful and prices started coming down.
The same thing applies to cement and now we had cement selling at USD20, then it came down once again, we open those borders, but it will not be a permanent opening. At some point we will shut when things equilibrate and then they stabilise. A comment was made on rebate on ICT equipment. This came from the Chair of the ICT Committee. We already granted a low duty on ICT equipment and continue to work with the sector on items that may still be outstanding. We can take another look and see whether we need to do more for this sector, we will look into it. After all, digitalisation is a key pillar of our Vision 2030 which will deliver us there.
There is a comment that was made by the Chairperson of Transport, Infrastructure Committee, Hon. Kaitano regarding the issue of toll fees. We are proposing that rather than increasing the basic toll fee by 100%, I am now proposing that we increase it only by 50%. We have lowered the increase. The same applies to the premium roads, again I am not proposing the full amount but only half of that. So, we have lowered these toll fee increases.
I also listened to a comment that perhaps tollgates that are closer to the city should have lower toll fees than elsewhere. We will look into this. It sounds like a noble proposal because some of the people who live out at the edge of the city or those who work in the city, if they are having to pay high toll fees, we do not want that. We want it to be fair and reflect the fact that the work here we do not want to overly penalise those individuals.
On registration fees from Number Plates, thank you for these proposals. This is under review and we will review it and see what we can do. For some of these proposals and suggestions from colleagues, these we proceed by way of regulations, Statutory Instruments and things like that. It does not necessarily have to come into a Bill although we may need to confirm by Parliament but it does not necessarily have to come through a Bill in the first place.
On the issue of the informal sector and formalisation, we believe that the proposals we have in the budget about ensuring that before they can access goods from manufacturers or retailers, they show that they are VAT registered. That is how we begin to formalise them. We think that this will do part of the trick but we need to build stalls as Government so that it is easy to find these SME operators. We will do that but we feel that the measures we are proposing, if fully implemented, will need to contribute to the formalisation agenda.
On the issue of the 1% levy on lithium, I know one colleague talked about this and I will find out who it was. They proposed that we increase the community investment levy from the 1% proposed to 10%. that is quite a bit. We like this but the industry will be very unhappy. The royalty for the lithium sector is 7%. So proposing 10% for the community levy is quite too much. Let us see how the 1% levy is doing and then we can adjust as we go forward. Anyone who does not comply with the beneficiation tax by the say or rather beneficiation imperative is forced to pay a tax of 5% which I want to increase to 6% in this proposal.
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