Budget
Karen Harverson
There are positive features about the Budget, the most important of which is government’s plan to reduce the deficit to 5,1% of Gross Domestic Product, said Leslie Boyd, chairman of Business South Africa and Anglo American Industrial Corporation.
He added that it was, however, difficult to describe the new Budget as bold and decisive.
“It is the minimum we could have expected and an example of what the government felt was politically possible rather than the clear display of courage our leaders should have shown.”
He said government’s failure to increase VAT in the new Budget seems to indicate its continuing unwillingness to confront labour.
Boyd said reduction in marketable securities tax (MST) and secondary tax on companies (STC) was favourable to investors. “However, the decision to tax pension funds is an increase in the cost of doing business because it is actually business who pays for pension funds, not the life industry.”