Story by Stanley James
TREASURY has with immediate effect unveiled additional measures to address challenges being posed by informalised traders on the viability of formal businesses.
The past few weeks have seen some formal retail and wholesale entities experiencing viability challenges emanating from smuggling and the activities of informal traders.
In a bid to address the challenges, the treasury held meetings with businesses and industries on possible interventions and directed all the informal traders to also use point-of-sale machines on transactions.
Tax compliance on all the informal traders has also been affected, with a monitoring task force appointed for that cause.
More measures to address the uneven playing field between the formal and informal businesses are also expected to be rolled out in the 2025 monetary policy which is due in the next few days.
Findings by the treasury show that most formal businesses are experiencing challenges due to competition from the informal traders, most of which are selling smuggled goods exclusively in United States dollars.
