Cape Town - Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan yesterday said while no decisions had been taken on what form tax increases would take during next year’s budget, the anticipated reforms would not hurt the poor and the lower middle class.
Gordhan said the country had a progressive tax system that favoured the less fortunate in society.
“It [the tax system] doesn’t hurt the lower middles classes and the poor and that has been an important trend that we've put into our fiscal landscape that we need to sustain into future,” Gordhan said while briefing Parliament’s committees on finance and appropriations a day after he delivered the medium-term budget policy statement.
On Wednesday, Gordhan said the government was planning to introduce a measured fiscal consolidation approach that entailed a combination of tax measures that would raise an additional R43 billion in the next two years and a reduction of the expenditure ceiling of R26bn. The National Treasury said the proposed tax increases would raise an additional R13bn in 2017/18.
Yesterday Gordhan said he did not believe a tax revolt was on the cards.”No, I’m not worried about a tax revolt. I think the additional taxes will have to be explained to the people who have to pay them,” he said.
AFRICAN NEWS AGENCY