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Johannesburg - It was lamentable that the government could not balance the books without a personal income tax increase, the Freedom Front Plus said on Wednesday.
Party leader Pieter Mulder said in reaction to Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene's budget tabled in Parliament: "I think it's a sad day in the sense that [in] the government of 20 years, there was no personal tax increase really and now for the first time there is 1%."
"That shows that they couldn't balance their books without that. Surely, if they should have a tax increase, I would've preferred VAT (value added tax) then.
Greater part of burden
He said hiking VAT by 1% would have contributed between R18bn to R20bn to the fiscus and solved the government's problem.
He lamented that the government opted for a personal income tax hike, as it would affect a small number of people, with high-income citizens having to carry the greater part of the burden.
"It's becoming too heavy," Mulder said.
He called state-owned enterprises (SOEs) "children that are not becoming independent".
"They are not being privatised in a sense and still need money and they'll never be on their own legs if we continue in this way," Mulder said.
General fuel levy
"The centralisation...maybe we can fight corruption that way. Let's hope it's better, but then surely the administration must be good enough that there is no bottleneck there.
"That's the risk on the other side. We'll have that problem at the end of the day."
Nene announced some personal income tax increases; a raise of the general fuel levy, as well as the Road Accident Fund (RAF) levy; the electricity levy and increased excise duties.
Consolidated government spending was expected to be R1.35trn and revenue about R1.2trn.
GDP was projected to grow from 2% this year to 2.4% in 2016 and 3% in 2017.
