Godongwana Expected to Deliver Good News in Maiden Budget Speech

When Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana tables his maiden Budget Speech today, all the focus will be on his proposals to bolster the health of the public purse, and what that will mean to the taxpayer’s pocket.

Godongwana said during the Medium-Term Budget in November that gross tax revenues are expected to exceed the estimates presented at the time of the 2021 Budget by R120.3 billion in 2021/22.

What this means is that after forecasting total tax revenues of R1.365 trillion in the 2021 Budget, National Treasury made a significant upward revision to this figure in the MTBPS 2021 by R120 billion, to R1.485 trillion.

Against this background, some economists and tax analysts expect the Minister to deliver good news when he tables this year’s budget.

Sanisha Packirisamy, an economist at Momentum Investments, said she was not expecting any new tax announcements in the 2022 Budget Speech.

“We are not expecting any new tax announcements to be made at the upcoming budget, outside of fiscal drag for the higher income-earning groups and possibly additional duties on alcoholic beverages and tobacco, and a marginal increase in fuel levies (bearing in mind the current high price of fuel).

“In our view, the expected revenue overrun should accommodate any increases on the expenditure side.”

Kyle Mandy, a Tax Policy Leader at PricewaterhouseCoopers, said in the firm’s budget prediction: “We expect that National Treasury will increase its tax revenue forecast…

“Given the better-than-expected performance in revenues, we do not expect to see significant changes in taxes, similar to the position adopted in Budget 2021, where there were no changes to taxes on a net basis, with relatively small real increases in indirect taxes offset by real decreases in [personal income tax].” – SAnews.gov.za