Madame Speaker, 

The bills before the House arise from the tax proposals contained in this year's budget announced by Minister Manuel. The bills provide inter alia for rates, thresholds and anti-avoidance transactions that cost the national fiscus a large amount of money each year. Later this year, the bulk of Minister Manuel's proposals will be dealt with in other legislation. 

The IFP supports the proposals made in these bills. We also want to express our appreciation for the wide-ranging nature of consultation that took place with stakeholders on the bills. I cannot think of any stakeholder who did not at least have the opportunity to make an input into the final product. 

However, notwithstanding a large number of submissions and public hearings, there were a number of grey areas in the drafts that needed clarification.

Section 45 that deals with intra-group transactions was one such area, but we are satisfied that the consultation process has now clarified that section to the satisfaction of most. 

There were initially some complaints that not enough time had been allowed for stakeholders to make inputs - a concern the IFP shares - but after the public hearings, intensive discussions ensued that allowed more than enough time for all views to be heard. 

It is the nature of proper consultation that stakeholders won some, and lost some "battles". However, what is important is the level of consultation and give and take which we as the IFP are very satisfied with. 

I want to express my party's gratitude to Keith Engel of Treasury and Franz Tomasek of SARS and their teams for constructively engaging the Committee and stakeholders, in the process leading to a better final product and more certainty for stakeholders. 

The IFP supports the bills

Thank you

 

FOR MORE INFORMATION
Mr Narend Singh MP: 083 788 5954