The National Treasury confirmed on Friday that an amount of R3 billion is to be transferred to electricity parastatal Eskom next week‚ but said this was part of R5 billion that had been withheld in December.

It pointed out that the government had approved fiscal support of R23 billion to Eskom‚ to be transferred in three tranches of R10 billion in June 2015‚ R10 billion in December 2015 and R3 billion in March 2016. A total of R15 billion had been transferred this far.

Of the second R10 billion due to have been transferred in December 2015‚ the Minister of Finance had withheld R5 billion‚ it said.

But following the submission of additional information by Eskom‚ on February 22‚ Minister of Finance Pravin Gordhan had approved the transfer of a further R3 billion. This R3 billion would be transferred to Eskom next week‚ it said.

“The National Treasury will be working with Eskom over the next few weeks to manage the transfer of the remaining R2 billion plus the R3 billion that was originally scheduled for March. Eskom will submit information in early March and the National Treasury will assess this before approving the transfer.

“It should be emphasised that the funds to cover the Eskom fiscal support have been raised already and are waiting for transfer in line with the terms government set out when approving the fiscal support‚” the Treasury stated.