The 6.75% increase in excise duties on alcoholic beverages has sparked fears that genuine businesses may struggle to survive, while illegal traders could flourish.

Lucky Ntimane, the National Liquor Traders Convenor, highlighted the dual financial blow faced by the industry due to the new tax measures.

"If you look at the increases, they are 2 percentage points above inflation, which the government pegged at about 4.7%," Ntimane explained. "For us, it's a double whammy, because you're also looking at a value-added tax (VAT) increase, which is some form of an aggressive tax affecting mostly those that are our consumer base."

Ntimane expressed concern that the combined effect of the excise and VAT increases will significantly impact the profitability of their products. "In order to maintain the consumer base that we have, we have to almost compromise on the price," he noted.

--SABC/ChannelAfrica--