There is always more to a National Budget than meets the eye and while the impact of this year’s National Budget will continue to be debated, Indwe Bluestar says a couple of key signs show that Minister Pravin Gordhan is trying to change our behaviour to one that’s less geared towards consumption and more towards saving. When predictions were made about which tax categories Government may target to raise funds for its revenue shortfall, most people kept their fingers crossed that personal income tax will not be in there. It seems luck favoured most, except those earning more than R1.5 million a year, whose marginal tax rate increased to 45%.
The Minister can be forgiven, if not hailed on this one. After all, in a country where the majority of the population is highly indebted and can ill afford to pay much more for anything, only the wealthy probably have some room to manoeuvre. This is probably why he is further hammering them with an increase in dividend withholding tax from 15% to 20%. While the rest of the taxpaying population will probably feel a slight tax pinch due to limited bracket creep relief, they will be hard pressed to find much pain in this year’s National Budget. We will do well to try and understand what Treasury is aiming to achieve and all the signs point to an objective to influence financial behaviour.
Indwe Bluestar points out that at the consumer level, the Minister applied tax increases in areas where people have control over their spending. So the usual culprits all went up: the fuel levy increased by 30c/l, the Road Accident Fund levy is up 9c/l and the excise duties for alcohol and tobacco will have increases of between 6% and 10%. Sugar tax will also be implemented later this year and the implementation of the proposed carbon tax will be considered in Parliament.
It is not far-fetched to note that what the Minister is trying to do at consumer level, appears to be in line with efforts to curtail unnecessary expenditure at a macroeconomic level. When you look at the mentioned taxes, while they affect consumers across the board, their impact may be kept low through modifying our behaviour, such as cutting down on sweetened drinks, smoking and alcohol consumption as well as through efforts to limit the use of motor vehicles, i.e. by carpooling or using public transport.
Indwe Bluestar says Treasury’s decision to limit the fiscal drag relief further demonstrates a carefully considered move to restrict a benefit which enables us to spend more, while boosting benefits that encourage saving. The Minister increased the annual allowance on tax-free savings accounts by 10% to R33 000 per tax year while transfer duty exemption has been increased from R750 000 to R900 000 – which should help and encourage first-time home buyers.
Looking at how much the Minister has increased the amount paid to pensioners every month, reflects that pensioners are struggling – which is partly a result of people underfunding their retirement provision.
This is likely to happen more as the cost of living increases further. So the attempt to change behaviour by rewarding people who save is a step in the right direction, because many people spend more money on their cellphone and data contracts or pay TV per month than they save for retirement.
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