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Mboweni to explain how relief financing will work

Finance Minister Tito Mboweni at a media briefing ahead of his Budget Policy Statement in Parliament. February 26, 2020. Picture: ESA ALEXANDER / SUNDAY TIMES
Finance Minister Tito Mboweni at a media briefing ahead of his Budget Policy Statement in Parliament. February 26, 2020. Picture: ESA ALEXANDER / SUNDAY TIMES

Finance minister Tito Mboweni will make an announcement on Friday on the Covid-19 relief financing, as well as any possible approach for funding from international finance institutions.

Many questions have been raised about how the government will finance the R500bn stimulus package announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa earlier this week, and the minister is expected to address these.

This was revealed on Thursday by Treasury deputy director-general Ismail Momoniat during a briefing to parliament’s two finance committees on draft bills providing for the initial tax relief announced by Mboweni at the end of March.

“The minister is going to be making an announcement tomorrow which is meant to be a more comprehensive response which will look at all the issues — the tax issues, the funding issues for the R500bn and some of the spending proposals, like on grants, how they will operate and for how long and so on.

“He will also deal with funding from the IMF [International Monetary Fund], the World Bank and the New Development Bank and what the conditionalities if any there are and so on.”

Along with the minister’s announcement, the Treasury will also provide supporting documents, Momoniat said.

DA finance spokesperson Geordin Hill-Lewis objected to Mboweni making a public announcement, saying that he should make a presentation to parliament first.

 

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