MEMBER'S STATEMENT

Mr N Singh MP

13 May 2008

Madame Speaker,

For more than a year now, food price inflation has outstripped headline inflation by a significant margin, leading to all food products becoming much more expensive and out of the reach of the public.

Hon. Members of this House will know what effect high food prices have had on the poor as we witness it everyday in our constituencies. The poor are suffering the most and the IFP therefore welcomes government initiatives such as food vouchers to alleviate their plight.

But, the IFP feels that much more can be done. In our reaction to the 2008 budget, we made our disappointment clear that the Minister of Finance when looking at tax did not heed our call to zero-rate more food items such as chicken for instance. The Minister definitely missed an opportunity to help the poor in that respect.

But, it seems all is not lost. Just this past weekend the ANC also called on the Minister to scrap VAT on a wide range of food items.

The IFP welcomes the thinking in the ANC for finally seeing the light and for supporting the IFP's policy on zero-rating more food items. The IFP has been propagating this move for some time, and while the ANC was a bit tardy in accepting our recommendations, at least they have now done so.

The IFP therefore calls again on the Minister of Finance to immediately scrap VAT on more food items, especially those that will benefit the poor the most. We do not accept the argument that the VAT regime can only be changed in next year's budget. The VAT Act is a law of Parliament and as such can be amended at any time, if there is sufficient political will to do so.

We call on Minister Manuel to show that political will now for the benefit of the country's poorest.

 Thank you.