Bad news budget policy speech by minister

Minister Enoch Godongwana said economic activity remained severely limited by continued shortages of electricity, deteriorating freight rail performance and slow port operations

- Dr Koos Coetzee.

The medium-term budget policy (MTBP) framework was presented to Parliament in November this year by Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana. The MTBP is usually a non-event as it just reviews government performance and explains why targets set in the main budget were not reached.

This year’s speech by Godongwana was different. In a presentation to Parliament, former chief of the parliamentary budget office Michael Sachs emphasised that this year the framework was not a review of the budget, but actually proposed large changes to the budget.

GOVERNMENT DEBT 

Government debt is out of control. According to Godongwana, government debt would grow to R6 000 billion in 2025/26 to equal 77% of the GDP, higher than the 73% predicted in the February budget. Government debt has grown by 47% since 2008. Government income depends on economic growth. Individuals and businesses need to increase their economic activity so that they can increase their income and their payment to government in terms of various taxes. The minister said economic activity remained severely limited by continued shortages of electricity, deteriorating freight rail performance and slow port operations. Since the 2023 budget, corporate tax income decreased as economic activity slowed down.