Budget speech 2021 | Finance minister Tito Mboweni

Finance minister Tito Mboweni has allocated R10.3bn to fund a massive vaccination programme to shield the entire population against Covid-19 in the next two years.

Mboweni announced this as he tabled the 2021/2022 budget before the National Assembly on Wednesday.

The budget documents Mboweni presented to parliament showed that the National Treasury had to reprioritise and do away with some government programmes to raise money to procure enough vaccines to achieve population immunity from the coronavirus.

The business community has welcomed finance minister Tito Mboweni's increased support for small enterprises but called for more urgency in implementing the plans.

Mboweni on Wednesday announced that the department of small business development will get R4bn over the next three years to support township and rural enterprises.

The government’s decision to ban the sale of alcohol and tobacco products has hit it hard in the pocket as more than R24bn could have been collected in excise duty or “sin” taxes.

There is good news for taxpayers after the National Treasury decided to reverse an earlier decision to increase personal income taxes in a bid to raise an additional R40bn.

The government is also providing a further R13.4bn in tax relief to households through raising personal income tax brackets and rebates by 5%.

“Total social grants are reduced by R5.8 billion in 2021/22, R10.7 billion in 2022/23 and R19.5 billion in 2023/24. All grant values will increase by less than inflation. The number of beneficiaries is expected to increase by about 300 000 people over the period,” reads the 2021 Budget Review report.

All info graphics courtesy of Treasury