CLEMENT MANYATHELA: VAT increase - You taxpayer are about to pay the price for the ANC’s failures
What was clear was that the finance minister, Enoch Godongwana, was going to table the budget, whether a deal was reached or not.
If there are disagreements, those will be attended to later. Amendments can be made at a later stage, which is what I said the last time the Budget was postponed. Remember?
I said the budget speech shouldn’t have been postponed. There is nothing wrong with allowing Parliament's natural process to unfold with the tabling of the Budget. It’s okay for a budget to be tabled, debated, and amended. Budgets don’t get delivered and automatically passed.
Yes, when the ANC enjoyed a majority, tabling the Budget was virtually a done deal. But budgets are meant to be presented, debated, and voted on. And if there are fundamental disagreements, there are opportunities to amend the budget. It’s part of the parliamentary processes.
Postponing the Budget confuses the markets, which will impact our currency. It’s unnecessary confusion. Even the President, in his weekly newsletter last week, said the postponement was unfortunate. It gave rise to concern and uncertainty among South Africans, investors and the financial markets, who look to the Budget for important signals about the state and direction of our economy. And I still say it: That wasn’t a good decision. And it would not have been a good decision today to postpone it yet again.
In fact, a decision had been made that the Budget will be presented whether all GNU parties, especially the DA, gave it the green light or not. And then changes can be made later as negotiations continue.
When I spoke to the ANC Last night on Face the Nation, there was still no deal. The ANC’s head of economic transformation committee, Zuko Godlimpi, basically told me the ANC would be okay with a tax adjustment/tax increase as long as it was not punitive.
What does punitive even mean? South Africans have said, "No, we can’t afford even the slightest increase in VAT." And yet the ANC says, "Well, we can still increase tax without it being punitive."
The DA, on the other hand, last night said it is not budging on tax increases and will not sign off on any budget that proposes one.
So, no deal. But the Budget was going to be presented either way. Parliament must accept and amend the fiscal framework before the end of March. So there are still a few days for negotiations to continue.
I just hope the ANC looks at the is moment and reflects on how it has mismanaged government finances over the last 30 years. And this is the price you pay: unfortunately, you and I are the ones that are going to pay the price. There has been massive corruption in government, finances have been mismanaged, public debt has been spiralling, the ANC failed to grow the economy enough to create jobs, and they failed to expand the revenue base. And here we are. And they want you and I to pay the price for their mistakes, or let’s be blunt, they want taxpayers to pay for their failures. It’s tragic.