Budget speech — Time to quit smoking and drinking
Government increases sin taxes, fuel, and personal taxes.
They say one drinks to cope with your sorrows but not after Minister of Finances Nhlanhla Nene made his budget speech public last week.
To get straight to the point what it means for consumers is that all will pay for governmental shortfalls through increased sin tax, fuel, personal tax and Road Accident Fund levies.
Minister Nhlanhla Nene made it very clear that our guilty pleasures will bring us more heartache in 2015 as sin tax is on the rise.
• The tax on a quart of beer will go up by 15.5 cents.
• A bottle of wine cost 15 cents more.
• A bottle of sparkling wine goes up by 48 cents.
• A bottle of whisky will be R3,77 more;
• A pack of 20 cigarettes goes up by 82 cents.
But that’s not all — South Africans will also have a hard time with travelling as Nene stated there will be “an increase in the general fuel levy of 30.5 cents a litre effective in April.”
If the above price hikes weren’t enough, personal income tax is also on the rise.
“Personal income tax rates will be raised by one percentage point for all taxpayers earning more than R181 900 a year. This raises tax by R21 a month for a taxpayer below age 65 with an annual income of R200 000. Those earning R500 000 would pay R271 a month more, and at R1.5 million a year the tax increase is R1 105 a month,” Nene says.
As far as farming goes, Nene said, “government will continue to strengthen support for agricultural development and trade, under Minister Zokwana. The projected conditional allocation to provinces over the medium term is R7 billion. Access of emerging farmers to finance will be expanded, in collaboration with the Land Bank.”
He continues to say, “1.2 million hectares will be acquired over the next three years, and R4.7 billion is allocated for recapitalisation and development of farms. Establishment of the Office of the Valuer-General in Minister Nkwinti’s department will assist in the orderly implementation of land acquisition and redistribution activities.”
South Africans will have to tighten their belts following price hikes on just about everything.
