FISCAL DILEMMA
HILARY JOFFE: Gigaba could end up reducing revenue if he increases taxes
In attempting to convince markets he is serious about bringing deficit down he could make the problem worse
Two media items over the past couple of days have provided a somewhat disturbing backdrop to Wednesday’s medium-term budget policy statement, even though they were no doubt intended to provide reassurance. The first was a Sunday post on Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba’s Twitter account, titled "MTBPS working session with the senior staff from Treasury and SA Revenue Service". The photograph showed the minister doing the talking at a meeting of the 20 or so officials who make up the budget brains trust. The second was an opinion piece titled "Media often targets SARS unfairly", penned by South African Revenue Service (SARS) media executive Sandile Memela and carried by a few publications, in which he accused the media of a relentless assault intended to tarnish SARS’s integrity to such an extent that taxpayers would embark on a tax revolt. In fact, wrote Memela, SARS under commissioner Tom Moyane had gone from strength to strength.Gigaba and his advisers love to tweet his every outing...
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