National Budget Speech

ShaunSA

ShaunSA

Derailment Squad
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For those nowhere near a radio/tv

http://www.treasury.gov.za/documents/national budget/2008/speech/speech.pdf

Highlights

2008 Budget highlights
The economy and fiscal stance
• GDP growth of 5 per cent in 2007, with growth averaging about 4.3 per cent a year over the forecast
period.
• CPIX inflation rising to 7.1 per cent in 2008 before declining to 4.9 per cent in 2009.
• Gross fixed capital formation projected to rise from 21 per cent of GDP in 2007 to 24 per cent in 2010.
• Estimated consolidated national budget surpluses of 1 per cent in 2007/08 and 0.8 per cent in 2008/09,
with projected surpluses over the three-year period.
• Real growth in consolidated government non-interest expenditure of 6.1 per cent a year over the MTEF.
• Government contribution to national savings projected to rise from 0.8 per cent of GDP in 2006/07 to
1.5 per cent in 2010/11.
• R60 billion to support Eskom’s capital financing requirements over the next five years.
Tax proposals
• Total tax relief for individuals of R7.7 billion.
• Reduction in the corporate income tax rate from 29 per cent to 28 per cent.
• A simplified tax regime for small businesses.
• R5 billion in tax subsidies over the next three years for labour-intensive industries and industrial policy.
• An electricity levy of 2 cents per kilowatt hour.
• Fuel (petrol and diesel) taxes to increase, from 2 April 2008, by 11 cents per litre.
• A packet of 20 cigarettes will cost 66 cents more.
• A 750 ml bottle of wine will cost 12 cents more.
• A 340 ml can of beer will cost 5 cents more.
• A 750 ml bottle of liquor (spirits) will cost R2.17 more.
Spending on public services
Additions to spending over the next three years:
• R33.2 billion for provinces mainly for school education, health care, welfare services and roads.
• R6.5 billion to municipalities for the extension of free basic services.
• R12.5 billion for social grants, including extension of the child support grant to children up to their 15th
birthday in 2009 and lowering of the age of eligibility for men to receive the old age pension to 60.
• R9 billion in conditional grants for school building, HIV and Aids, hospital revitalisation and school
nutrition.
• R8.2 billion for public transport, roads and railway infrastructure.
• R6 billion for housing, water and general built environment infrastructure.
• R2 billion for 2010 FIFA World Cup Stadiums and related infrastructure.
• R2.5 billion for industrial development and small, medium and micro enterprises.
• R2.6 billion for agriculture and land reform.
• R2.7 billion for information technology network infrastructure, police forensic laboratories and additional
police personnel, and R2 billion for correctional facilities.
• R1.4 billion for higher education, research and knowledge development.
• R1 billion for programmes under the expanded public works umbrella
Click to expand...
 
An excellent buget in difficult circumstances.
Trevor did it once again.
Can't we vote for him as president?
 
ARE THEY F*CKING STUPID!?

"Fuel (petrol and diesel) taxes to increase, from 2 April 2008, by 11 cents per litre."

1. The citizens are struggling beyond belief.
2. Interest rates may go up, and thousands are losing their Home already.
3. There is F' all public transport.
4. The taxis are getting too expensive for their passengers.
5. The stuff-up exchange rate is making everything, and FUEL more expensive.

...and then they want to increase all the other living costs as well?

AIDS needs to work faster.
 
Nice Mikroz. Nothing like putting things in perspective.
 
Looks to me like a great budget. Trevor for president any day!

Regarding fuel cost: Expensive but good for the enviroment. Rising fuel costs are a world wide problem and just wait until there is no more petrol left...

Now its up to the rest of the bunch to use this money properly:)
 
I think it is a very good budget all round, very balanced and I like Trevor's thinking in still budgetting a surplus.

With regards to the sin taxes, its always going to go up, its a major revenue earner for the governement and it discourages people from taking part in these things thus reducing the medical costs required.

The fuel levy is going to hurt on top of next months 45-50c increase, but it was expected as well. The RAF actually does a load of good for people who have been accidents and claim from the fund, my wife works with this on a daily basis.

The electricity levy is going to have an effect on spedning as well if you consider Eskom can raise their prices by 14.6%, but if that means we get to build more power stations I'm happy to pay it.

The best part I think is dropping companies by another 1%, that is really going to help with regards to expansion.

The benefit gained by indiciual directly from a decrease in income tax isn't that large but on the flip side at least there is something, they could also just have adjusted the brackets and given us nothing back. Further benefit is also gained from the increase in medical aid deductions that are allowable.
 
Threshold for VAT for small businessess up to R1m from R300k. Massive relief for these guys !
 
Piepalook said:
Fuel price is still way below milk and Coke price.
Click to expand...
I bought Coke for R11.50 a 2Lt last night at my local Corner Shop - that's R5.75 a liter - a lot cheaper than Petrol ;) Anyway, petrol is way cheaper here than most other countries, so I don't really care about the price of it here, even if it increases.
 
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