Political parties’ expectations ahead of budget speech

FILE | Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana.

Some parliamentary political parties do not expect Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana to make any changes to taxes when he delivers his budget speech on Wednesday afternoon.

They are also calling for a budget that will reset the socio-economic challenges facing South Africans.

Action SA says it does not expect any tax increases in Wednesday afternoon’s National Budget Speech.

Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana is expected to deliver his speech at 2pm in Parliament.

Party MP Alan Beesly says due to their active campaigning for bigger allocations to the South African Revenue Service (SARS), matters on the tax front is not expected to feature.

Beesly says, “We are not expecting tax increases. SARS received more funding to close 800 billion tax gap and this should negate any need for tax. Underfunding of SARS was issue highlighted by Action SA. We are looking forward to announcement no tax increase this year.”

uMkhonto weSizwe’s (MKP) Acting Parliamentary leader Des van Rooyen says,“We don’t expect any major changes that will deal with taxing the wealthy as part of our call that we need to broaden our tax to GDP ratio from where it is now to at least 25-20%.”

African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) MP Steve Swart says the budget must bring hope to South African citizens.

Swart says, “The ship of public finances is turning in the right direction, fiscal consolidation is starting to bear fruit with public debt stabilising still at very high levels and fiscal anchor is needed for geo-political, and other storms. This budget must bring hope to citizens who are fed up with high crime, poor education, poor health services and water shortages, and poor or no municipal services.”

Build One South Africa (Bosa) leader Dr Mmusi Maimane wants a budget that will stimulate economic growth.

Maimane says, “We have to be intentional about how we going to fund for growth, SA’s challenge is that it’s got nearly as 18 million citizens who are on some type of welfare, and to support the jobs, we’ve got to move at least 10 million citizens into the middle class we need.”