Researcher: Basic Income Grant would cost SA more than R374 billion over 3 years
A universal Basic Income Grant (BIG) will not take away from the economy, but will be a positive injection, said economic analyst Duma Gqubule on Wednesday.
He was addressing a webinar about the Basic Income Grant. It was hosted by The Studies in Poverty and Inequality Institute.
Gqubule said an adult, BIG for people aged 18 to 59, would cost R374.8-billion over three years.
Organizations and researchers say there’s never been a better time to introduce a basic income grant, to help address the country’s current inequalities, unemployment, and poverty.
Gqubule said there was a self-financing element to the basic income grant and more than half of the cost will return to the government. “There’s a self-financing element to BIG. We must distinguish between the gross cost and the net cost. More than 50 percent of gross cost returns to economy in the form of VAT and higher tax revenue, due to the stimulus effect,” explained Gqubule.
Isobel Frye from the Studies in Poverty and Inequality (SPI) Institute said the country would be better off with a basic income grant. “We believe that a basic income grant will bring about a better South Africa and that’s why we are in this room today, and that’s why as an organization SPI has been committed to a basic income grant before even the inception of the social policy initiative,” Frye elaborated.
The SPI has proposed an “unfunded” basic income grant, to provide maximum stimulus to the economy, which needs a cash injection.
-EWN
In other news – Uzalo actress Thuthuka Mthembu (Nonka) finds love at work, she’s head over heels in love with another Actor
It seems the burning romance between Uzalo’s Nonka and Kwanda has spilled off-screen. Sources close to the stars, whose real names are Thuthuka Mthembu and Sandile “Masandi” Mfusi, said they were together in real life.
A source close to the couple told the publication they were head over heels in love. “It didn’t take them long to fall in love. It happened soon after Masandi joined the show,” said the source. Learn More
