Anc, Democratic Alliance Fail To Reach Agreement On Budget

ActionSA on Tuesday attempted to come to the ANCs rescue in make or break parliamentary deliberations on the fiscal framework, after the ANC and Democratic Alliance DA failed to reach an agreement.

Talks between President Cyril Ramaphosa and DA leader John Steenhuisen continued throughout the day while parliaments standing and select committees on finance met on Finance Minister Enoch Godongwanas revenue proposals .

DA finance spokesperson Mark Burke confirmed that the ANC has so far rejected the conditions on which his party would agree to support the ministers 0.5 percentage point VAT increase for the coming fiscal year.

Burke tabled a proposal to amend Section 6.28 of the committees report on the revenue proposals to reject the tax hike and adjust the budgets expenditure framework accordingly, minus the sum that would have been raised through higher VAT.

Burkes proposal won the support of the Economic Freedom Fighters EFF, while the uMkhonto weSizwe MK partys Des van Rooyen said his party would also not support a VAT increase. This signalled that the ANCs backchannel negotiations with those two parties, to support the budget in the event that the DA and other members of the 10-party ruling coalition, failed to do so, had reached a dead end.