Although there were no major shocks in Minister Pravin Ghordan’s Budget Speech, motorists will be forking out a massive R2 765 185 942 with the extra 12 c/litre levy on fuel. Additionally, they will pay and extra 8 c/litre to the Road Accident Fund levy.
“Economic growth of 2,7% is expected for 2014,” says Ghordan, adding despite slower economic growth, the budget deficit is expected to be 4% lower than projected in October last year. Recognising this Budget comes mere months before a general election, it was a fairly tame affair with much of it devoted to the successes of the current Government – a mirror of the recent State of the Nation address by President Jacob Zuma.
Disturbingly, Ghordan did say..”we will pursue exploitation of shale gas (fracking) to provide another energy source for our economy”. This, despite the overwhelming evidence from existing fracking operations operations that clearly show massive long-term damage to the ecology and water sources.
On the good news side the tax register of individuals has risen from 5,5-million to 15-million making it possible to provide personal tax relief to individuals of some R9,5-billion in the coming year. He also made no mention of any possible increases to perks tax and placed Carbon Tax on hold until 2016.
Very much geared towards ‘electioneering’ the new budget does add 9c to a bottle of beer, 68 c to a pack of 20 cigarettes and R4,80 to a bottle of whisky. Government plans to increase spending on the country’s rail infrastructure by 20% a year. This will allow the Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa) to forge ahead with plans to buy new trains, build depots and upgrade signalling infrastructure, despite the weaker rand driving up costs. Treasury says it has reprioritised R650-million in the transport budget in this financial year.
Source: Fleet News
