Johannesburg – South African finance minister, Tito Mboweni, will today deliver his much awaited budget speech at 2pm.
The minister will need to tackle tough questions like what will be done to bolster revenue and improve the already ailing economy and where will the money to fund the roll out of the COVID-19 vaccines come from?
With COVID-19 bringing economic activity to a halt in March and April last year, Mboweni announced a projected revenue shortfall of R300 billion during his supplementary budget review in June.
This was at the back of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s announcement of a R500 billion social and economic relief package.
According to Mike Teuchert, the National Head of Taxation at Mazars, not only is National Treasury expected to record a budget deficit of at least 14%, the finance minister needs to find ways of funding numerous urgent projects – such as COVID-19 vaccines – while trying to also find a way out of the country’s debt mountain.
Watch the minister deliver his speech below:
Budget2021 time. See you then. pic.twitter.com/yfBCqlwQB8
— Tito Mboweni (@tito_mboweni) February 23, 2021
After a day of meetings and Budget 2021 speech editing and drafting, I went on a drive via George’s Valley to Tzaneen. Refreshing!@golimpopo. pic.twitter.com/IHFWnFgflN
— Tito Mboweni (@tito_mboweni) February 19, 2021
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