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Cape Town - A roundup of Wednesday's top economic and finance reads on Fin24.
Competition Commission investigating book publishing 'cartel' over price-fixing claims
Competition Commissioner Tembinkosi Bonakele has initiated an investigation against the Publishers' Association of South Africa (PASA) and its members for allegedly fixing the prices of books.
The price fixing may have occurred for more than three decades in contravention of the Competition Act.
Steinhoff convinced it can secure 'some form' of return to shareholders
Former Steinhoff CFO Ben la Grange said that the practice of stating false profits dates way back.
"This practice commenced a number of years back," he explained. No person, auditor or analyst could pick up any substantial growth simply by looking at the numbers as the increases are incremental over years.
SA Revenue Service shortfall to blame for VAT hike – Treasury
Treasury would not have needed to increase value added tax by one percentage point to 15% in April if not for the revenue shortfall at the South African Revenue Services (SARS), deputy director general at National Treasury Ismail Momoniat told the Nugent Commission of Inquiry on Wednesday.
According to Momoniat, Treasury hopes to raise R25bn from the VAT rate hike in the 2018/2019 financial year - if no further zero-rated items are added to the basket of goods that are exempt from VAT.
Banks weigh new fund to boost black farm ownership
Banks are in talks to start a joint fund that could be used to accelerate the transfer of land to black people as they seek to protect billions of rand in assets tied up in farm loans.
Lenders are wading into the racially charged land reform debate as the ruling party embraces calls to change the constitution to allow expropriation without compensation.
Vodacom is said to discuss network-sharing deal with Telkom
Vodacom is negotiating a South African wireless network-sharing deal with fixed-line operator Telkom SA as a replacement for former partner Cell C, according to people familiar with the matter.
The unit of Vodafone lost about a R1bn of annual revenue when Cell C jumped ship to fierce rival MTN earlier this year, the sources, who asked not to be identified, revealed. They have asked to remain anonymous as the talks aren’t public. Bringing in Telkom, South Africa’s fourth-largest mobile-phone company, would make up at least some of the shortfall, they said.
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