Minister of Finance Enoch Godongwana delivering the 2024 budget speech. Image credit: Timeslive
(The Post News)- Different organizations have assembled outside Parliament in Cape Town, Western Cape, to protest Minister of Finance Enoch Godongwane’s planned Value Added Tax (VAT) hike.
Godongwane will present his budget speech today at the National Assembly, after the initial one was postponed, after parties in the National Government of Unity (GNU) could not reach consensus over the two-percent tax increase that was proposed by the minister.
The minister will also introduce the Appropriation Bill and table the 2025 Division of Revenue Bill, which parliament is expected to process in the following months. Godongwane has earlier stated that he intends to impose the VAT increase in order to earn R60 billion to cover the government’s “critical expenditures” this year.
According to him, “critical expenditures” include early childhood development programs, school nutrition programs, infrastructure improvements, civil servant raises, and an extension of the Social Relief of Distress (SRD) award.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), which is also part of the demonstration, had released a statement rejecting the VAT increase, noting that they hope discussions following the postponement result in a bold, progressive, and people-focused budget.
Meanwhile, the uMkhonto weSizwe Party’s Luther Lebelo, led the MKP march in Tshwane against the VAT increase and liquidation of Ithala Bank, they are marching to the Department of Finance and the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) to seek “economic justice”
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