BURNING ISSUES
TAX REGIME CONTINUES TO BITE
High taxes are at the top of the pile of burning issues for businesses again
The corporate community is once again grappling with pressing business concerns, particularly the persistent issue of high taxes, which has become a source of heightened anxiety over the past several months.
Forty-eight percent of executives now cite high taxes as their main concern, marking a nine point rise from 39 percent in October.
In the latest LMD-PEPPERCUBE Business Confidence Index (BCI) survey, political interference surged to second place with 40 percent of respondents flagging it as a major concern – that’s a whopping 24 percent increase from the previous month.
According to the exclusive survey conducted in the first week of November, interest rates took third place in November with 26 percent of respondents citing the cost of borrowing as a concern.
Brain drain (which held third place in the previous month) ranked jointly in fourth with import restrictions, both identified by nearly a fifth (18%) of the sample population.
On a national scale, a majority of 74 percent of participants cite the economy as their primary concern, although this marks a slight decrease of four percentage points from October.
And concerns about the cost of living continue to trend down, falling from 59 percent in October to 56 percent in November. Meanwhile, unease about the political culture rose by three percentage points, reaching 27 percent.
And for the second consecutive month, the plight of daily wage earners remains among the top five national concerns, ranking fourth at 18 percent. Issues related to bribery and corruption, a repeat entrant, takes fifth spot with 15 percent of respondents citing the twin evils as a concern.
