Cape Town - The National Treasury says it is ready to table the special adjustment budget in Parliament from June 24.
This after the National Treasury announced the special adjustment budget guidelines which outline the processes it plans to run to table the special budget.
"The date of 24 June is the date by when the National Treasury will be ready to table. It does not prescribe whether Parliament must organise for tabling on this date," read the statement.
"The date of the tabling will be decided by the Speaker of the National Assembly in agreement with the president and minister of finance," National Treasury said.
The tabling of the special adjustment budget comes after President Cyril Ramaphosa declared on March 15 the state of national disaster to minimise the economic impact of Covid-19 pandemic.
On April 21, Ramaphosa announced the R500 billion fiscal support package and the National Treasury identified funding sources for the package.
According to the National Treasury, of the funding sources for the R500 billion is a R130 billion reprioritisation of the budget.
"A proposed special adjustment budget seeks to modify the 2020-21 budget to utilise baseline allocations to provide for the rapidly changing economic conditions and enable spending on the Covid-19 response.
"A revised fiscal framework will also be presented to account for substantial revenue losses emanating from the economic shock of the pandemic and subsequent lockdown," reads the guideline.
It stated that all other adjustments not included in the special budget will be tabled in the October adjustment budget.
The special adjustment budget guidelines say in order to fund the R130 billion response package, departments were required to identify programmes or activities that can be temporarily suspended without negatively impacting the longevity of such programmes.
These would be programmes already put on hold during the lockdown, projects with implementation dates moved to the next financial year and spending not critical to the core of service delivery requirements of departments.
"Such changes in the baseline will only be effected in 2020-21 financial year and will not at this stage be carried forward into the medium term expenditure framework."
Some of key dates ahead of tabling of special adjustment budget:
- 13 May - Guidelines sent to departments;
- 22 May - Departments to submit their proposed adjustments;
- 2-8 June - National Treasury special adjustment budget approval processes;
- 10/11 June - Cabinet approval;
- 12 June - Allocation letters to departments;
- 15 June - Final submission date for special adjustment budget data workbook; and
- 24 June - Tabling of the special adjustment budget.