Finance Minister Godongwana to deliver Budget Speech on 21 February
Treasury confirmed on Wednesday afternoon that the budget will be tabled in Parliament on 21 February, just two weeks shy of President Cyril Ramaphosa delivering his final State of the Nation Address of the current political term.
FILE: Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana. Picture: @TreasuryRSA/Twitter
CAPE TOWN - Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana will deliver Budget 2024 next month in what’s set to be another tough economic year for the country.
Treasury confirmed on Wednesday afternoon that the budget will be tabled in Parliament on 21 February, just two weeks shy of President Cyril Ramaphosa delivering his final State of the Nation Address (SONA) of the current political term.
When Godongwana delivered the medium-term budget policy statement in November, he hinted at possible tax hikes this year to meet the shortfall in revenue and to pay off burgeoning government debt.
Minister Enoch Godongwana stepped into the breach after the resignation of Tito Mboweni in August 2021 to become the second finance minister during this sixth Parliament.
He promised tough love for state-owned enterprises and to curtail the public wage bill, as government debt continues to soar, and revenue falls short to meet the many demands.
Next month, Godongwana will deliver the final budget of this political term, to announce government spending, tax and borrowing plans for the next three years.
In November, he announced that government needed to raise at least R15 billion more in taxes.
But a hike in personal income tax or value-added tax would be an unpopular decision in an election year.
With an SAA deal looking to take off, Transnet structural reforms stuck in port and Eskom still battling to keep the lights on, Godongwana will once again be faced with a balancing act of helping out struggling SOEs before his term of office ends.