Budget Speech 2010 without any Surprises - 21st Feb 2010

On 17 February the new Minister of Finance, Pravin Gordhan, delivered his first budget speech. Due to the recent recession and the reduction in revenue (R 69bn) the new budget has to be financed by increasing state debts slightly. Thus the government will be able to increase the budgets for crime fighting, education and more importantly the increasing of service delivery throughout administrations and municipalities (R 1.1 Trillion over 3 years!).

With focus on education and job creation, South Africa will see its first serious government grant programme for businesses and NGOs for cash grants to create educational positions in all industries in order to get up to 800 000 people educated.

While corporate taxes remain unchanged, sin taxes received another serious hike, but personal income will no be tax free until R 57 000 per year, a generous relief for the lower income groups and a relief for the revenue administration.

The budget of meanwhile R 907bn finished off with the announcement that economic growth is expected to reach 2.3% for the fiscal year 2010/2011 combined with a tax amnestie for private households, who may not have to pay penalzies and interest on taxes due, if the underlying income is declared and paid within the next 15 months.