Small businesss lobby group Isme has called for the burden of commercial rates and water charges to be "redistributed" to other sectors.
In its pre-Budget submission presented to Minister for Finance Brian Cowen today, Isme said the business community found it "unacceptable" that it was the only sector paying such charges.
It wants the State and domestic households to take on charges to ease the pressure on small enterprises. Isme also called on for an alternative energy policy to encourage SMEs to invest in alternative energy products.
Isme said a key issue in formulating the budget should be to restore Irish competitiveness to allow business to compete with our international trading partners.
Isme chairman Daniel Hickey said: "With many businesses suffocating due to production costs increasing by 10 per cent on average per annum, way ahead of our international competitors, it is essential that the Minister once and for all introduces initiatives to address the high cost environment.
"This is particularly important in the areas of energy and local charges, with increases in this area crippling many small companies throughout the country," Mr Hickey added.
The small business lobby also called on the Government to switch the money it currently contributes to the SSIA scheme into infrastructure when the savings scheme comes to an end next year.
It said Ireland has a significant infrastructure deficit that needs to be urgently addressed "in a coherent and planned" way.
Isme said the 5 per cent of GNP target for infrastructure spending on capital projects was not sufficient to fully address Ireland's infrastructure needs.
On tax, Isme called on the Minister to increase the ceiling for payment of VAT from €635,000 to €3 million to improve the cashflow of many small and medium enterprises.