Finance minister Enoch Godongwana: Photo credit: Jairus Mmutle / GCIS
(The Post Script)- The long-awaited 2025 budget speech was delivered yesterday by the finance minister, Enoch Godongwane. Weeks after it was postponed due to disagreements within the Government of National Unity (GNU). The speech has mixed emotions from different parties.
VAT tax has increased by 0.5% for 2025/2026 and another 0.5% for 2026/2027. VAT rose to 16% over the two-year period. With regards to government debt, it is expected to stabilize at 76.5% of GDP in 2025/2026.
Infrastructure is allocated R1 trillion for the period of two years. Broken down to R402 billion allocated to transport and logistics, R219.2 billion allocated to energy infrastructure, and R156.3 billion for water and sanitation.
Public sector employees are included in the 2025 budget. 28.9 Billion to keep health workers and 19.1 billion to keep teachers in their jobs. However, early childhood development centers keep their R17 per child every day that was allocated to it in 2019, which will increase in the course of the term to R27 per child per day.
Social grant: old age and disability grant increases with R130, child support grant increases with R30, and last but not least, foster care grant is up with R70. Furthermore, the social relief grant has been extended to March 2025 and allocated with 35.3 billion for this.
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