The National Treasury said despite the stagnant economy it believes it can meet its 2020 commitments to reduce the budget deficit and stabilize debt, without compromising on social spending.
But it told Parliament digging into the Reserve Bank’s gold and foreign exchange reserves to settle debt costs is a once-off exercise.
Treasury officials have appeared before a joint meeting of Parliament’s finance committees this afternoon to respond to critique from civil society on the budget tabled by the finance minister last week.
Head of Treasury’s budget office Edgar Sishi said the government is 16% worse off than its peers in terms of its debt burden.
And it’s stifling the government’s developmental agenda.
“If we don’t take action, what we have seen over the last number of years, debt service costs having been at around 80 billion in the past, have in the years gone by, simply eaten up more and more of the resources available for other things.”
Treasury Director General Duncan Pieterse has ruled out using some of the R150 billion from the Reserve Bank’s gold and foreign exchange account to help struggling SOEs.
“The nature of the balance sheet transaction that we undertook, it made most sense for it to be used to reduce our borrowing given the challenges.”
The finance committees have asked Treasury to present it with a plan that would help the country boost economic growth.
-EWN
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While she’s successfully managed to keep her relationships under wraps, she has shared photos with a man that has buzzed social media users. Read More