Plan to establish NHI fund put off till Treasury gets more input, Gigaba says
In February, Pravin Gordhan said an NHI fund would be established to support priority health programmes, and that more details would be provided in the medium-term budget policy statement
The Treasury has delayed plans to set up a National Health Insurance (NHI) fund, saying it wants advice from the Davis tax committee on the feasibility of proposals to adjust the medical tax credits to finance it. Former finance minister Pravin Gordhan said in the February budget policy statement that an NHI fund would be established to support priority health programmes, and that more details would be provided in the medium-term budget policy statement (MTBPS), delivered by Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba on Wednesday. At the time, Gordhan said it might be partially funded by a reduction in the tax credits provided to medical scheme members. The Treasury now says more work needs to be done, and has published an analysis of the medical tax credit scheme, which shows more than half (56%) the total credits claimed in 2014-15 accrued to 1.9-million taxpayers with a taxable income below R300,000, many of whom were workers who belonged to medical schemes. “Tax data indicates that the prog...
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