Budget 2025: Treasury compromises on VAT increase — all the latest news
Previews, key takeways and expert insights on SA's budget 2025
12 February 2025 - 10:26
UPDATED 13 March 2025 - 23:08
Welcome to Business Day's comprehensive coverage of Budget 2025. We bring you the latest insights, predictions, expert opinions and more about the most important fiscal event of the year. This evolving page will regularly update with new information, analysis, and reactions as they unfold.
Get all the latest news after the government announced an unprecedented postponement of the budget speech on Wednesday.
Join us as we navigate the 2025 budget's tightrope. We will offer you a detailed and well-rounded view of what to expect and how it may impact various sectors of the economy.
Budget 2025: Treasury compromises on VAT increase — all the latest news
Previews, key takeways and expert insights on SA's budget 2025
Welcome to Business Day's comprehensive coverage of Budget 2025. We bring you the latest insights, predictions, expert opinions and more about the most important fiscal event of the year. This evolving page will regularly update with new information, analysis, and reactions as they unfold.
Get all the latest news after the government announced an unprecedented postponement of the budget speech on Wednesday.
Join us as we navigate the 2025 budget's tightrope. We will offer you a detailed and well-rounded view of what to expect and how it may impact various sectors of the economy.
Tiisetso Motsoeneng
Acting editor
Latest news
DA budget proposals did not include NHI and Bela Act
DA outlines list of growth budget proposals to President Cyril Ramaphosa
Vat increase effective from May 1 because minister made the announcement
SA needs to prepare for the VAT increase, and a process will take place in parliament that may or may not ratify Enoch ...
ANC policy agenda at the heart of budget clash with DA
ANC sticks to its guns and rejects demands of GNU partner DA
Budget faces high-stakes parliamentary showdown
MPs have the power to make changes, with DA saying it won’t support Godongwana’s latest offering
Economists see growth potential in 2025 budget but warn of consumer strain
There are measures to foster growth and maintain fiscal discipline, while tax hikes with no relief pile pressure on ...
Proposed tax change to hit foreign retirement funds
The change relates to the cross-border treatment of retirement funds accumulated abroad
Minerals Council flags urgent need for more measures to lift mining sector ...
A drop in iron ore production saw SA’s mining output extending a three-month downward trend in January
Communications budget cut by a third as broadband spend slows
The reduction in expenditure is mainly due to cuts in spend for the department’s ICT infrastructure programme
Scopa chair Songezo Zibi says contentious budgets ‘new normal’
Zibi says rigorous parliamentary engagement will replace rubber-stamping
Cabinet says tax hikes will ‘finance SA’s sustainability’
Khumbudzo Ntshavheni says budget strikes a balance between SA’s fiscal framework and government’s funding priorities
Sars to get R7.5bn over the next three years
Tax boss Edward Kieswetter wins battle for extra funds needed to operationalise revenue systems
VAT hike a ‘punch to the gut of already struggling South Africans’
Finance minister Enoch Godongwana opts for a half a percentage point hike in each of the next two years
BUDGET IN A NUTSHELL: Treasury compromises on VAT increase
Grant recipients and taxpayers bear the brunt of smaller VAT hike
DA will not support budget, says John Steenhuisen
Enoch Godongwana delivers budget without majority support in parliament
Who got the money? Winners and losers in the 2025 budget
Treasury’s budget office head Edgar Sishi says due to adjustment in terms of the decision on tax revenue hikes, other ...
Budget adjustments take shape as Treasury sticks to 1.9% growth projection
Treasury plans to raise an extra R28bn in 2025/26 and R14.5bn in 2026/27 by gradually increasing VAT
R1-trillion committed to infrastructure spend but Treasury says no SOE ...
The government will not make an equity injection into state-owned freight, ports and logistics company Transnet
Treasury decisions to be open to wider scrutiny
This is to avoid a political impasse, which led to the budget being delayed by three weeks
Enoch Godongwana appoints Africa Expert Panel members to help solve debt ...
The recommendations of the panel will feed into the G20 process
Welfare grant recipients get modest inflation-beating increases
Social spending will rise by R8.2bn over the medium term, down from the R23.3bn increase proposed in February
Still no relief in budget for US cuts to grants for HIV/Aids
The only move so far is that national health will appoint staff working in its central chronic medicines dispensing and ...
SA to incentivise local EV production
Budget sets aside R1bn for a scheme that aims to increase participation and investment in sector
THE LATEST INSIGHT FROM OUR EXPERT WRITERS
EDITORIAL: A step forward or a stumble?
Democracy is working but budget negotiations in parliament are bound to be messy
NATASHA MARRIAN: Few neat options over budget impasse
The ANC and DA may not like it, but the two finding each other would be the best outcome
LEON LOUW: Budget gets a six out of ten
The most obvious way to cut government spending would have been to abolish most departments and ministers
HILARY JOFFE: Tax compromise kicks the can right out of neighbourhood
For at least two reasons minister and his team may battle to get markets to believe in fiscal plan
LISETTE IJSSEL DE SCHEPPER and SHANNON BOLD: SA misses chance to speed up ...
While the clock is still pointing to an upswing, SA is moving in the wrong direction
PETER BRUCE: Budget’s lack of a growth pitch stumps even Mantashe
Our finance ministers are bank tellers, glorified accountants or financial advisers to rest of cabinet
KHAYA SITHOLE: VAT hike may come back to haunt GNU
Besides the financial squeeze, people are also experiencing declining service delivery and find the idea of paying more ...
RICARDO SMITH: No more rabbits to pull out of the hat
South Africans are paying the price of the government endlessly kicking the fiscal can down the road
NTSAPHOKAZI MADYIBI: SA needs bold thinking, not a budget without vision
Raising VAT does not solve the fundamental issue of low economic growth; it only deepens inequality and financial ...
GAYTON MCKENZIE: The DA can grab their ball and leave
Can the DA really believe it would be better to bomb the GNU rather than support a compromise budget?
STUART THEOBALD: Raid the piggybanks, add to the debt pile or cut spending
No sign of compromise across the GNU a day before the revised budget
JABULANI SIKHAKHANE: Loose lips reveal details not meant to be made public
Godongwana and company talking about the Sars commissioner was picked up by microphones
MARIANNE MERTEN: Confusion about political processes underlying budgets in ...
It is unclear what has been achieved in the past two weeks of discussions in the multiparty cabinet
ISMAIL JOOSUB: A good education is a right, not an expense item
Cuts to the education budget don’t just cripple the system; they lead to the destruction of the economy
RASHAAD AMRA: How a well-managed coalition can ensure fiscal sustainability
A middle ground that benefits all could be found between the ANC’s interventionist instincts and the DA’s libertarian ...
MICHAEL AVERY: Chance for Godongwana to break cycle, but don’t hold your ...
A responsible government would ensure social spending drives long-term economic growth
KEVIN ALLAN: Does local government deserve a larger slice of the budget ...
Given the pressure on Treasury to cut spending, it is hard to see how local government deserves an increase
KURT YEO: Tax tobacco products in proportion to their harm
A blanket approach on so-called sin taxes neglects considerations such as reducing tobacco by encouraging more people ...
ALAN BEESLEY: Addressing fiscal crisis starts with funding Sars properly
It collects more than 90% of government revenue, yet it remains chronically underfunded
CLAUDE DE BAISSAC: ANC can’t see hard facts hitting SA
Why SA must end fiscal tinkering and economic dithering
GIVENS KGASI: Strategies for SA traders amid budget delays and policy ...
Uncertainty can provide opportunities for traders to capitalise on market movements
EDITORIAL: Judge budget 2.0 on the hard choices it makes
One budget delay may be evidence of a functioning democracy while another delay would suggest an unstable coalition
ANN BERNSTEIN: Runaway spending, not VAT, is the real budget problem
SA needs an actionable growth strategy not tax hikes and political compromises
ZUKO GODLIMPI: There is a lot of work to do after the budget
Articles highlight the need for a better way of managing national development and selecting policies that can best ...
MICHAEL MORRIS: Crisis is about entrenched woes, not budget
Complacency abounds amid the world’s highest youth joblessness, a paltry growth rate and insufficient investment
HILARY JOFFE: Budget process requires a deeper debate
SA needs a far richer debate on fiscal policy if it is to come up with a credible income statement and balance sheet
DAVID LEWIS: Budget fiasco a sideshow in new world order
VAT glitch shows SA’s democracy is holding up rather well — unlike Trump and JD Vance
PETER ATTARD MONTALTO: VAT and foreign policy are one
The GNU could emerge stronger if it gets the budget right
MULTIMEDIA
WATCH: The DA’s take on budget 2025
Business Day TV speaks to DA leader John Steenhuisen
WATCH: Budget 2025 analysis
Business Day TV speaks to a panel of experts for their take on the highlights from the finance minister’s announcement
WATCH: Unpacking the tax decisions from the 2025 budget
Business Day TV spoke with Devs Moodley, senior manager at Forvis Mazars, Pieter Faber from SAICA and Mamohlwa Mohlola ...
WATCH: Business reacts to budget 2025
Business Day TV spoke with Khulekani Mathe, CEO of Busa and Busi Mavuso, CEO of BLSA
READ IN FULL: Enoch Godongwana’s 2025 budget speech
The finance minister presented the national budget in Parliament. Read the full speech
WATCH: The politics of Budget 2025
Business Day TV speaks with political analysts Asanda Ngoasheng and Daniel Silke
WATCH: Budget 2025 and how it affects your finances
Business Day TV speaks to Devs Moodley, senior manager at Forvis Mazars and Harry Joffe, legal services head at ...
WATCH: Budget 2025 — take two
Minister in the presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni was confident on Tuesday that the budget will be tabled on Wednesday
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