Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana had a mixed basket for South African consumers when he presented his annual Budget Speech yesterday.
The Treasury has allocated more kroon for social grants, promised 10 000 new cops, and set aside billions for the IEC and political parties for the national elections taking place on 29 May.
Grants
The government will increase the old-age grant by R100, the foster-care grant by R50 and the child-support grant by R20.
Government is working with social development to improve the R350 Social Relief of Distress grant.
National Health Insurance (NHI)
Despite strong opposition from political and healthcare quarters, Godongwana said they will implement the NHI this year and allocated close to R7 billion to kickstart the scheme aimed at providing all South Africans with quality healthcare.
Fuel
The Minister announced there would be no increases in the General Fuel Levy for the 2024-25 financial period. However, from 3 April, the carbon fuel levy will increase to 11 cents per litre for petrol and 14 cents for diesel, up from 10 cents and 11 cents respectively.
The current General Fuel Levy amounts to R3.95, while the Road Accident Fund levy adds R2.18 to a litre of fuel.
Sin taxes
Alcohol
– A can of beer and cider will increase by 14 cents
– A bottle of wine will go up by 28 cents and fortified wine by 47 cents
– A bottle of sparkling wine will cost an extra 89 cents; and
– A bottle of spirits, including whiskey, gin or vodka will increase by R5.53
Tobacco
There will be a R9.51 increase for cigars; a 97 cents increase for a pack of entjies; and a 57 cents increase for a pipe of tobacco.
Vaping
The prices of vaping products will go up by R3.04/ml with effect from 1 June.
Godongwana said this comes after calls for an introduction of tax on okka pype, e-cigarettes, etc.
Safety and Security
In a bid to crack down on crime, the government will hire 10 000 police officers this year.
This is in addition to the 20 000 officers who have been recruited in the last two years.
Elections
Godongwana said the IEC was allocated an additional R2.3bn.
SAPS and SANDF have been given an additional R350 million to support the IEC.
More than 350 political parties are contesting the elections and Godongwana said R200m will be given to them to prepare for the polls.
Load Shedding
Treasury has revealed that from 2022 to 2023, Eskom generated a loss of R24bn.
The state-owned entity also continued to rely on government support for liquidity.
Treasury says: “The power system remains unpredictable and unreliable, with power cuts expected to continue until the capacity shortage of 4 000 MW to 6 000 MW is addressed.”
In the 2023-24 period, Eskom was allocated R78bn, however Treasury has realised that Eskom will fail to dispose of the Eskom Finance Company by the agreed timeframe of 31 March, therefore government has proposed to reduce the allocations of R78bn in 2023-24 and R66bn in 2024-25 by R2bn each year.
dailyvoice@inl.co.za