Budget 2025: A call for bold choices amid fiscal crisis

Sizwe Dlamini

AS South Africa gears up for the implementation of Budget 2025, the government’s proposal to increase the value-added tax (VAT) by 0.5 percentage points to 15.5% in May 2025, followed by another increase in April 2026, raises significant concerns. This policy, expected to generate R43.3 billion over the next two fiscal years, reveals a dire dependency on tax hikes amid a struggling economy. Critics have argued that this approach lacks creativity and fails to address systemic issues, echoing the words of Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana during the Budget Speech, who acknowledged the urgent need for “the right fiscal choices today in the interest of South Africa’s tomorrow”. Since the tabling of this year’s Budget Speech, South Africans have had time to scrutinise it along with its related documents, with diverse…

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Sunday Independent (Digital) - 1 Issue, 2025-03-30

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