Cape Town – Government will spend R89 billion over the next financial year on social grants in the face of increasing unemployment and the impact of last year’s recession. Tabling his Budget Speech in Parliament on Wednesday, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said provision had been made for the extension of the child support grant up to the age of 18. State old-age pension and disability grant will rise by R70 to R1 080 a month while the child support grant will increase by R10 to R250 per … [Read more...]

Gordhan Budget Speech: R52bn for Public Works Projects Cape Town - Around R52 billion will be made available in the next three years to roll out various Expanded Public Works projects over the next three years. Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan, tabling his Budget Speech today, said an additional R2.5 billion will be used to support labour intensive projects in the social, non-governmental and environmental sectors, largely targeted at rural areas. The second phase of the EPWP aims at … [Read more...]

Cape Town – Cash-based businesses that avoid making VAT payments are among those entities and individuals that government aims to target in a bid to reduce tax avoidance and tax restructuring. Tabling his maiden Budget Speech in the National Assembly on Wednesday, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said these measures included tightening company car and other fringe benefits and ensuring that employer deductions were fully reflected in the gross income of employees. He said steps would also … [Read more...]

Cape Town – Taxpayers will breath a proverbial sigh of relief this year with the decision by government not to raise tax rates for businesses or individuals, to make up for the R69 billion tax shortfall this year, said Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan who has instead proposed a “moderate” tax relief of just R6.5 billion for this year. A quarter of this relief will go to those taxpayers with annual taxable incomes of below R150 000. The value of tax relief to households this year is … [Read more...]

Cape Town – Inflation targeting would continue and there were no plans to fix the rand, the Finance Minister announced on Wednesday. Pravin Gordhan said the Reserve Bank would continue to pursue a target for Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation of 3 to 6 percent. "(South African Reserve Bank) Governor (Gill) Marcus and I have agreed that monetary policy should be conducted in a consistent and transparent manner within a flexible inflation targeting framework," said Gordhan, adding that … [Read more...]

Cape Town - Government will be stepping up the fight against HIV and AIDS with the announcement of a further R3 billion towards its national prevention and treatment programme. In October last year, R5.4 billion was set aside to enable more people to access treatment and improve the effectiveness of treatment programmes in public hospitals. Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said in his Budget Speech on Wednesday that the additional R3 billion will broaden access to those infected with TB and … [Read more...]