Authors: Mr Busisani Sibiya, Dr Marina Bornman
A number of countries are investing in green projects. One means of investing in green projects, is by moving from gasoline to bioethanol. Bioethanol has proven to have less emissions compared to gasoline. South Africa intends moving from gasoline to bioethanol. The transition from gasoline to bioethanol ought to have happened in October 2015, but to date (November 2017), the transition has not yet happened. It is not clear why there has been a delay in the transition, but there are no petrol stations in South Africa that pump bioethanol. The United States of America and Brazil are leading producers of bioethanol. These two countries have proven over the years to be successful in the production of bioethanol. This paper aims to investigate the tax incentives that these countries employed over the years, which have encouraged not only the production, but also the consumption of bioethanol. Important principles are extracted from these incentives and the motives for such incentives. It is then evaluated whether tax incentives offered by South Africa are adequate to encourage production and consumption of bioethanol. This is done by assessing whether South Africa has considered the important principled highlighted in Brazil and the US. The paper found that there are a number of principles that South Africa could incorporate in formulating tax related strategies to encourage participation in bioethanol projects. These include incentives that benefit the consumer; incentives to producers of different sizes and for different terms; and incentives offered by different levels of government.
Keywords: Tax incentives; Bioethanol; Tax exemptions; South Africa