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Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana’s recent budget is being singled out for the scathing criticism of the VAT increase it is receiving, but in reality, it deserves even more criticism than that.

This is what Theuns du Buisson, economic researcher at the Solidarity Research Institute (SRI),has to say about the ongoing budget crisis for which there is still no light at the end of the tunnel.

While Du Buisson also rejects the proposed VAT increase as harmful to the country and its people, he believes other harmful elements of the unacceptable budget do not receive enough attention.

In this regard, he highlights the general trend of more taxes and insufficient cuts.

“It is totally unacceptable that the personal income tax brackets are left unchanged for a second year in a row. As a result, more people in the lower income groups will now pay personal income tax for the first time ever. 

“Those who are already paying income tax, will find that the bulk of their increases will go towards taxes rather than into their own pockets,” Du Buisson said.

He says that calling this budget a “pro-growth” budget because government spending still remains high can also be regarded as a distortion of reality.

“On the one hand there is consensus that government spending is the exact cause of the main problems in the budget, but there is an ongoing reluctance to cut costs, supposedly to encourage growth. 

“The government must realise the private sector is much better at promoting growth, and for this reason the authorities should urgently stop restricting the life out of the private sector and ordinary people,” Du Buisson said.




Issued by Economic Researcher: Solidarity Research Institute (SRI) Spokesperson Theuns du Buisson