The majority of SMEs do not expect to feel a ‘significant impact’ from the repeal of the Carbon and Mining Tax, despite claims from Government that scrapping the tax will ‘lower costs, boost growth and increase jobs’.
That’s according to a new index by The Executive Connection (TEC), which found 52 per cent of business owners did not expect the repeal of the tax to have significant impact on their business.
Some 28 per cent of respondents expected a ‘significant impact’ and 5 percent expected the effect to be ‘very significant’.
“This survey shows that the repeal of the Carbon Tax will not dramatically change the outlook for small to medium sized businesses,” Nikki Potter, CEO of The Executive Connection said.
“The effect of the carbon tax on SME’s is not as easy to quantify as a simple seven to nine percent reduction in gas and electricity expenses and consumers should not count on a huge windfall in savings,” she added.
Potter said the reason for this lies in the administrative costs and other additional complications associated with scrapping the tax – as a result, most SMEs do not expect to see a significant cost saving in 2014.
“Although small businesses were in principle those heaviest hit by the carbon tax, 71 per cent of our smaller business owners reported an improvement in business conditions in 2013,” Potter said.