Parliamentary Finance Committees Welcome Tax Relief Packages

The Standing and Select Committees on Finance from the National Assembly and the NCOP have welcomed a plan by the National Treasury and the South African Revenue Service (Sars) on two tax relief draft Bills.

These are the Disaster Management Tax Relief Bill and the Disaster Management Tax Relief Administration Bill which detail a number of amendments to help ease the tax burden on South Africans and businesses.

The two committees briefed Parliament on Thursday.

The presentation on the tax bills came a day after the president announced a R500 billion stimulus package to help South Africans in their time of need.

But members of the committee raised a number of questions about the tax relief and how long it would last.

African National Congress (ANC) MP Joe Mpisi: “What will happen after six months, particularly for the working class?”

Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) MP Floyd Shivambu said the tax measures were already announced by the president and questioned whether the R500 billion stimulus package was new money to be spent or just a reprioritisation of funds.

“The R500 billion is not the expenditure of new money because I’ve seen somewhere that R130 billion of that is the reprioritisation of already budgeted money and if that is the case, which components is that going to come from?”

Co-chairperson Joe Maswanganyi said that next week, the committees would be briefed by the Minister of Finance on the relief package and the legislative framework that governs the administration of the COVID-19 Solidarity Fund, as well as the procurement of goods and services from the fund.

EWN