Delegates Stand up to Eskom on tariff

ESKOM’s request to be granted an effective 16.6% tariff increase this year is widely opposed by stakeholders and the public who have made submissions to the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa), Thembani Bukula, Nersa member for electricity, said on Monday.

 

Nersa is in the process of holding public hearings on Eskom’s revenue-clearing account, a mechanism that allows the utility to recover unanticipated costs that arose while generating electricity.
The costs are recovered from consumers retrospectively by adding them on to the next year’s tariffs. However, in order to do so, the regulator must deem that the additional costs pass efficiency tests and were prudently incurred.

Eskom is claiming an additional R22.8bn from the 2013-14 year, which will amount to an 8.6% tariff increase. This would be on top of the 8% increase agreed for 2016.
Mr Bukula said most submissions recognised the need for Eskom to be allowed some additional cost recovery through the tariff, but not the full 8.6%.

Alex Ayodele Calls for higher Industrialist Investments in Kogi

Kogi State- A frontline industrialist in Kogi State, Dr Alex Ayodele John has called on investors around the world to explore the investment opportunities that abound in the state for the mutual benefit of the citizenry and the prospective investor.

 
In an exclusive chatwith Vanguard in his Lokoja office recently, the industrialist said Kogi State is blessed with a good number of high worth miners resources that are waiting for exploration.
“With the high deposit of limestone and iron ore in the state, massive investment is needed to change the socio-economic narrative of the state. Kogi is so blessed that we should not be associated with poverty.

Delayed VAT refunds ‘causing cash flow woes for small business’

DELAYED refunds on Value-Added Tax (VAT) have increased significantly, causing cash flow problems for especially small and medium-sized enterprises.
This is according to tax practitioners interviewed this week, who said it was also increasing the cost of doing business as businesses need to pay professionals to get back what had been rightfully theirs in the first place.
Victor Terblanche, chairman of the South African Institute of Tax Professionals’ (SAIT’s) VAT committee, said the VAT Act did not provide for a timeframe for the payment of VAT refunds, or a timeframe for the finalisation of audits.

SINGLE FILE: People queue in Polokwane to file their income tax returns by the deadline.

"The act does provide for the payment of interest if the refund is not paid within 21 days following the submission of the VAT return," said Mr Terblanche.
"The act is quite clear. It does not say that SARS has a discretion to pay interest. The act says interest shall be paid at the prescribed rate."

Pharma CEO Martin Shkreli who jacked up AIDS pill price by 5,000% says he should have charged even more

The drug company CEO who jacked up the price of a life-saving pill to $750 from $13.50 said he wishes he had raised the price even more.

Turing Pharmaceuticals chief Martin Shkreli is now facing new lower-priced competition and government scrutiny. But he said at a forum hosted by Forbes magazine Thursday that the outcry over his company’s list price for a Daraprim pill didn’t cause him any regrets.

“I probably would have raised prices higher, is probably what I should have done.” said Shkreli, 32. “I could have raised it higher and made more profits for our shareholders, which is my primary duty."

 

He continued, “No one wants to say it, no one's proud of it, but this is a capitalist society, capitalist system and capitalist rules, and my investors expect to me to maximize profits, not to minimize them, or go half, or go 70%, but to go to 100% of the profit curve that we're all taught in MBA class."

Zimbabwe: 'Govts Not Doing Enough to Fight Corruption'

Corruption

Most Africans say corruption has risen in the past 12 months and most governments are seen as failing to stop the abuse of power by senior officials engaged in corrupt activities, according to a new opinion poll by Transparency International.

In the report entitled "People and Corruption: Africa Survey 2015, part of the Global Corruption Barometer", TI partnered Afrobarometer, which spoke to 43 143 respondents across 28 countries in the sub-Saharan Africa between March 2014 and September 2015 to ask them about their experiences and perceptions on corruption in their countries.

The majority (about 58 percent) of Africans in the surveyed countries say corruption has increased over the past 12 months.

In 18 out of 28 countries surveyed, the majority of people said their governments were not doing enough to fight corruption.

Despite these disappointing findings, some bright spots across the continent were observed in Botswana, Burkina Faso, Lesotho and Senegal, Transparency International said.

For the first time, people surveyed reported some business executives as highly corrupt. Business ranked as having the second highest levels of corruption in the region, just below the police.

Auditor-general Bemoaned state’s repeated failures to comply with Fnance Management Act

 SOUTH AFRICA - Auditor-General Kimi Makwetu has bemoaned the repeated failures of national and provincial government to comply with the Public Finance Management Act, leaving the fiscus vulnerable to waste and abuse.

 

Mr Makwetu said on Wednesday in Pretoria that while there had been a slight improvement in the audit results of the two spheres of government, they incurred R32m in fruitless and wasteful expenditure in efforts to prevent further fruitless or irregular expenditure and losses.
Mr Makwetu was presenting the 2014-15 audit results of provincial and national departments, as well as those for public entities.
The audit covered 468 departments and 301 public entities, which had a combined budget of R1.1-trillion.

Sushma: No Security Without UNSC Reforms

NEW DELHI: Making a forceful push for United Nations Security Council reforms, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said on Tuesday that global governance structures that exclude Africa and India and their 2.5 billion people cannot have legitimacy and collective peace and security will continue to elude the world.
 
Inaugurating the ministerial session on the second day of the third India Africa Forum summit, Swaraj said that even as the United Nations celebrated 70 years of its establishment, “our nations continue to be excluded from appropriate representation in the institutions of global governance”. She asserted that India and Africa can no longer be excluded from permanent membership of the UN Security Council.

A-Ibom Election Poll: Why Tribunal nullified election in 18 LGAs

ABUJA—The Akwa Ibom State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal, sitting in Abuja, yesterday, cancelled the governorship election results in 18 local government areas, LGAs, in the state. A three-man panel of Justices at the tribunal, headed by Justice Ishaq Umar, ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to conduct re-run elections in the affected LGAs.

Emmanuel                                     Umana

The tribunal said it was satisfied  that a total of 566, 436 voters in the areas were disenfranchised during the governorship election that held in the state on April 11, 2015. According to the tribunal, section 108(2) of the Electoral Act, empowered it to, in view of circumstances that surrounded the governorship election in the 18 LGAs, nullify the outcome  and order INEC to organise a re-run.

Specifically, it listed the LGAs where INEC must conduct a re-run poll as: Etim-Ekpo, Uyo, Ibesikpo, Onna, Ikono, Oruk-Anam, Uruan, Ibeno, Ibiono Ibom, Nsit-Ibom, Nsit-Ubium, Ini, Oron, Nsit-Atai, Etinan, Udung-Uko and Eket.

Sen. Bukola Saraki Unveiled Ministerial list.....

NIGERIA-  President of the Senate, Senator Bukola Saraki on Tuesday unveiled the names of the Ministerial nominees submitted by President Muhammadu Buhari.

 

They include;

1. Dr. Chris Ngige – Fmr. Governor of Anambra State

China's Inflation still below Government target.

The rate edged up to 1.6% from 1.4% the month before because of rising food prices, the government said.

Producer prices, which include wholesale and factory price inflation, fell for the 40th month in a row.

Analysts say the data points to the need for measures to stimulate the world's second-largest economy.

The producer price index was down 5.4% from a year earlier - it had been expected to fall by just 5% in July. 

 

China's central bank has cut interest rates four times since November last year in an effort to boost economic activity. But Zhou Hao, economist at Commerzbank in Singapore, said it would probably need to do so again.

Sir Richard Branson comment " Network Rail 'too big',

Many of the delays that passengers on Virgin Rail suffer are down to Network Rail, he said.

"Network Rail is far too big a company," he said. "I think that companies that kind of size should be broken up into small units."

 

Network Rail said decisions on its future would be taken by the government.

Investment delays