• Fiscal framework does not commit to growing the economy, creating jobs and addressing poverty and inequality
• DA remains steadfast in opposing any form of VAT or tax hike
• GNU must lift people out of poverty – not tax them into it
The DA – as part of KwaZulu-Natal’s (KZN) Government of Provincial Unity (GPU) – has written to Premier, Thami Ntuli, (view here) to formally advise him of our objection to the 2025 national fiscal framework, to be tabled in the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) today.
Our objection is based on the view that the framework presented has no policy direction in terms of growing the economy, supporting desperately needed job creation and addressing the endemic poverty and inequality that remains. Instead, it is a copy and paste of historically failed frameworks that do not move the economic needle in the right direction.
The DA has also remained consistent and firm in its principle of opposing any increase in VAT or tax. A VAT hike – even if staggered – is a tax on food, on school shoes, on transport to work and innumerable other daily necessities. It is a tax on survival and it is ultimately the most vulnerable members of our society who will suffer most.
The DA has offered solutions to the proposed VAT hike. This includes cutting government’s R27billion wasteful expenditure bill – double the amount needed to stop the increase. To date, our solutions have fallen on deaf ears. Instead, the ANC continues to knock on every political door to find support for its reckless framework.
The fiscal framework is supposed to promote sustainable and inclusive economic growth, while also promoting sound financial management and public service delivery.
The DA will not stand by and allow KZN’s people to be taxed into further hardship. We are committed to a Government of National Unity (GNU) and GPU that builds, not breaks. A government that lifts people out of poverty, rather than taxing them into it.
We remain committed to these principles and will continue to work hard to deliver the capable, ethical and developmental state that KZN’s people deserve.