Communications minister Solly Malatsi wants to see a threshold on the luxury goods tax charged on smartphones to make it more affordable for people to switch to 4G and 5G devices. This will help migrate traffic off 2G and 3G, after which a deadline for switching off these legacy networks can be decided. "One of my obsessions is looking at the declassification of smart devices as luxury items because they carry an additional tax," Malatsi told MyBroadband during a recent interview.
The South African Revenue Service charges an additional ad valorem tax on smartphones, substantially increasing the price of devices relative to many overseas markets. "We've already had informal discussions with the Treasury about it," Malatsi said. "We are not saying remove all the associated luxury goods taxes on smart devices, but have a threshold.
" A threshold would make devices over a set amount considered luxury items, attracting ad valorem, while cheaper devices would be exempt from the tax. Malatsi's comments regarding luxury goods taxes on smartphones were part of an answer about the deadlines for blocking 2G and 3G device imports and ultimately switching off these older networks in South Africa. His predecessor and current deputy minister, Mondli Gungubele, set deadlines for banning new 2G and 3G devices from being brought into South Africa in its Next-Generation Radio Frequency Spectrum Policy.
First, Gungubele wanted type approvals on all new 2G and 3G...
Jan Vermeulen.
