Committee Report on National Treasury & South African Revenue Service 2012 budget

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Finance Standing Committee

15 May 2012
Chairperson: Mr T Mufamadi (ANC)
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Meeting Summary

The Committee considered its Draft on the Strategic Plans and the Budget Vote 10 (National Treasury and SARS). It adopted the report after corrections and additions were made to it.

Members recommended that Treasury supply the Committee with a breakdown of the 6.3% increase requested as the figure was above the targeted 5% increase and Treasury had to set the standard.
Members recommended that Treasury explain how they would roll out the National Health Insurance (NHI) and what the framework for funding the NHI was. Members wanted the financial training that Treasury provided to municipalities be done in a collaborative manner to ensure custom made training. Members recommended that Treasury brief the Committee on the European debt crisis more often in light of the rapid changes in Europe. Members also recommended that Treasury report on its assessment of the ratings agencies and what strategies it had designed to mitigate any fears the agencies might hold.

Meeting report

Committee Report on National Treasury & South African Revenue Service 2012 budget
The Committee considered its draft report on Budget Vote 10 (National Treasury and SARS) for the 2012/13 financial year. The Chairperson tabled the report for consideration.

Mr D Ross (DA) wanted the reference to R845bn on page 2 to be followed by a time frame. The Committee agreed to add the phrase “Medium Term Expenditure Framework” (MTEF). He also felt that the wording was not right in the first paragraph of page 3. The Committee agreed to a change in the wording that reflected that rising fuel prices would put pressure on inflation dropping to 5.3% in 2013.

Mr T Harris (DA) moved that in that same paragraph the word “crisis” be inserted after the word “banking” and that Chinese growth be described by the word “slower” in place of “soft”. He said the correct term for the infrastructure development plan was “National Development Partnership Grant” (NDPG). He said that the 5.2% referred to in 9.2 was the cost of living adjustment rate not the interest rate. He said the last line on that page should read “manufacturing sector created the least amount of jobs”

The Committee Secretary had to ascertain whether the acronym CIT stood for company or corporate income tax.
 
Recommendations
Mr Harris recommended that Treasury supply the Committee with a breakdown of the 6.3% increase requested as the figure was above the targeted 5% and Treasury had to set the standard.

Ms J Tshabalala (ANC) recommended that Treasury explain how it would roll out the National Health Insurance (NHI) and what the framework for funding the NHI was.

Mr D Van Rooyen (ANC) recommended that Treasury acknowledge the need to capacitate municipalities and that the financial training be collaborative rather than an imposed top down approach to ensure custom made training.

Mr N Koornhof (COPE) added that the Auditor General had reported that the Auditor General’s reports did not appear to have an impact and that Treasury should ensure that the Auditor General’s reports were enforced.

Mr Van Rooyen said that Treasury should look into Treasury related issues in the Auditor’s report.

Mr Koornhof recommended that Treasury brief the Committee on the European debt crisis.

The Chairperson said that given the recent rapid changes the Committee was in need of meeting more than the quarterly meetings to keep abreast.

Mr E Mthetwa (ANC) recommended that the Committee be kept up to date with the Border Control interdepartmental task team’s work. 

Mr Harris recommended that Treasury provide information and report on the progress of the Job Creation Challenge Fund mentioned on page 56 of the strategic plan of the Department. He also recommended that Treasury report on its assessment of the ratings agencies and what strategies it had designed to mitigate any fears the agencies might hold

The Chairperson raised written recommendations of Mr S Swart (ACDP). The first one on the National Youth Wage Subsidy had been responded to. The second one on e-tolling had been dealt with in the previous meeting and the last one on corruption and public perception had in fact been raised by SARS itself in its presentation.


Mr Harris recommended that SARS provide a breakdown of the R63000 cost of compliance as quoted on page 33 of its strategic plan.

The report was adopted

The meeting was adjourned.

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