Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan will today table the country’s National budget, which is expected to give details on how the country’s massive infrastructure projects will be funded.
It is also expected to send a signal that South Africa is a growing economy.
Gordhan will table the budget before Parliament at 2pm.
The South African economy has had an uneven recovery from the 2009 recession.
“Having witnessed credit rating downgrades from all three major agencies in recent months, this year’s budget is likely to come under more scrutiny than usual in terms of balancing the needs of a cyclically weak economy burdened by important structural challenges,” said Absa in its economic commentary on Wednesday.
The South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Sacci) CEO, Neren Rau, said the budget must adopt a pragmatic approach towards the management of South African public finances.
“Sacci trusts that he [Finance Minister] will send a positive signal to the world that South Africa is a stable and growing economy,” said Rau.
Business hopes that the minister will provide information on how the 18 infrastructure projects will be funded.
In the last year, the Presidential Infrastructure Coordinating Commission (PICC) launched the intergovernmental forums of the 18 Strategic Infrastructure Projects, known as SIPs.
The budget is also expected to expand on the funding of the National Health Insurance (NHI), which will be rolled out from this year.
Industry also hopes that the minster will speak to the implementation of the youth employment incentive scheme.
In its commentary, Nedbank said the minister faced the difficult task of placing the country’s public finances on a sustainable path in an environment of faltering economic growth, as well as growing social spending demands.
The focus of the budget was likely to remain on spending on social and economic infrastructure.
The budget deficit for the financial year 2012/13 is expected to come in at 4.6% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). – SAnews.gov.za
Tell us in the comments section below what you think Gordhan will announce.
Alan Straton
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The IFP’s Mario GR Oriani-Ambrosini says; “Not Much To Hope For In Budget”:
The ANC economic model does not work and cannot work. It is a formula for long-term poverty which addresses no present-day problem. In essence, it is a two-tier welfare system for the poor and the parasitic rich at the expense of productive South Africans.
The economic compact proposed by the ANC budget after budget is not sustainable as it requires maintaining 18 million people on social welfare programs while utilizing the State to perpetually subsidize the super-rich, the captains of unviable industries and phony entrepreneurs, at the expense of a rapidly diminishing and over-burdened middle class.
Thus far all budgets have reflected the ANC-led Government having no vision for the economic leadership of the country to the point of sub-contracting the formulation of such vision to the National Planning Commission only to end up praising in words and ignoring in facts the report of that Commission. We are now on the vicious downward spiral of unsustainable social grants, growing unemployment, shrinking of the industrial basis for lack of genuine competitiveness, growing social unrest and protest, and the consequent reduction in fixed domestic and foreign investment and credit downgrading, all of which are leading to the country becoming poorer, with no alternative in sight.
South Africa has already missed some of the great opportunities granted it by history, such as remaining the gateway to Africa in the largest continental economy. The ANC-led Government is not only neglecting but even undermining the two fields in which the greatest measure of employment can be generated, namely agriculture and tourism, including by maintaining the monopolistic position of South African Airways which has made South Africa an unviable destination, and by failing to bring about the green agricultural revolution advocated by the IFP and centered around larger farming units high added value, labor intensive crops and the utilization of produce as an alternative energy source;
Thus far ANC budgets have fuelled bankrupt policies with toxic subsidies. The Minister of Agriculture is responsible for policies which led to a 50% drop of employment in our fields, and the Minister of Trade and Industry who is responsible for placing our economy on addictive steroids in the form of subsidies and the reduction of international competition, which has shrunk our industrial basis and forcibly transferred huge resources from our impoverished families into the hands of the rich and super-rich.
NMBBC’s Kevin Hustler says; “Budget 2013 should address issues of competitiveness and sustainability”
The Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber will be listening intently during Budget speech 2013 for workable measures to address issues of competitiveness and sustainability, as well as the development of critical infrastructure and catalytic projects in the Eastern Cape economy. We hope to hear solutions for efficient and effective service delivery for business to ensure an investor friendly and enabling environment.
A strong emphasis on education is required particularly in schooling and FET colleges to ensure a framework for sustainable long term skills development in South Africa, particularly in the areas of maths, science and technology.
Also on the Chamber’s wish list is support for small to medium enterprises, and measures that allow for and promote diverse economic activity in the country. We look to the minister to lean heavily on corruption in the government procurement process. Ease of access for SME’s in all levels of government procurement and commitment to locally produced goods and services with payment commitments in 30 days.
The Business Chamber strongly believes that close attention should be paid to rising input costs of fuel and electricity, and that steps should be taken to lessen the burden and cushion the blow to business and domestic consumers alike.
The cost of doing business in South Africa is becoming prohibitive as well as the burdensome bureaucracy of compliance.