UKZN Hosts Public Debate on National Budget

BY: .

The Deputy Director-General of the Budget Office in the National Treasury, Mr Michael Sachs, unpacked issues in South Africa’s latest National Budget during a public debate at UKZN hosted by the School of Accounting, Economics and Finance.

The public discussion which was facilitated by the School’s Academic Leader for Higher Degrees and Research Dr Harold Ngalawa

aimed to give students insight into factors Treasury takes into account when drafting the National Budget in order to broaden their knowledge of the county’s economy and make a connection between theory and practice.

Sachs spoke on revenue and expenditure, domestic resource problems such as the electricity crisis and the need to close the gap between income and expenditure.

‘We can have a great discussion about what should have been done in the past to prevent the problem that Eskom is facing now but that won’t change the fact that we have this energy crisis. What we need to do is look at this as an opportunity to shift into a less energy intensive structure and low energy growth path,’ he said.

Sachs also explained in detail about the key measures that Treasury would adopt to stabilise expenditure and the growth of debt.

The importance of these issues was evident as many in the audience raised questions ahead of the question and answer session!

Hot topics of discussion were the increase in personal income tax and the fuel levy, the feasibility of free tertiary education and a proposal to tax the taxi industry.

Sachs responded saying the government’s fiscal policies depended on the state of the economy and the global situation which, he said, was not improving.

Speaking from a student’s perspective, second year Supply Chain student Ms Lulama Ngobese said she found the session very informative.

‘As someone studying economics, the discussion gave me context about the theory we are going through in class. We often wonder why the government makes the decisions it does when it comes to the budget so having Sachs explain things to us in detail has expanded my knowledge of the country’s economy’ she said.

Thandiwe Jumo