NCOP passes five money bills

The National Council of Provinces (NCOP) passed five money bills on Tuesday during its hybrid plenary sitting.

The five bills passed include the Rates and Monetary Amounts and Amendment of Revenue Laws Bill, the Taxation Laws Amendment Bill, the Tax Administration Laws Amendment Bill, the Adjustments Appropriation Bill and the Special Appropriation Bill.

This comes after Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana last month formally tabled the 2022 Rates and Monetary Amounts and Amendment of Revenue Laws Bill (Rates Bill).

Parliament, in a statement, said the major objectives of the Rates and Monetary Amounts and Amendment of Revenue Laws Bill and the Taxation Laws Amendment Bill are largely aimed at:

– fixing the rates of normal tax;

– to amend the Income Tax Act (ITA), of 1962;

– to amend rates of tax and monetary amounts;

– to amend the Customs and Excise Act, of 1964;

– to amend rates of duty in Schedule 1 to that Act;

– to insert new tariff items;

– to delete tariff items;

– to delete rebate items;

– to insert rebate items;

– to amend the Carbon Tax Act (CTA), of 2019;

– to amend a rate of tax; and

– to amend the Rates and Monetary Amounts and Amendment of Revenue Laws Act, of 2020, among the key others.

“The key proposals in the Tax Administration Laws Amendment Bill include the imposition of understatement penalty for employment tax incentives improperly claimed, advance rulings under the Customs and Excise Act, and addressing tax compliance status system abuse,” said Parliament spokesperson Moloto Mothapo.

He said the Adjustments Appropriation Bill and the Special Appropriations Bill, on the other hand, were tabled in Parliament in terms of section 12(1) and (2) of the Money Bills and Related Matters Act as amended by the Money Bills Amendment Procedure and Related Matters Amendment Act.

“Section 12(1) of the Money Bills and Related Matters Act requires the Minister of Finance to table a national adjustments budget as envisaged in section 30 of the Public Finance Management Act. Section 12(2) of the Money Bills and Related Matters Act requires that ‘an adjustments appropriation Bill must be tabled with a national adjustments budget’,” he said.

The Adjustments Appropriation Bill provides for increases to allocations set out in the main Appropriation Act of 2022.

Total in-year spending adjustments amount to R13 billion, inclusive of the total adjusted appropriations per vote and adjusted estimates of direct charges against the National Revenue Fund (NRF). Of the total in-year adjustments of R13 billion, R7.24 billion is with respect to direct charges against the NRF.

These include, among others,

– a proposed additional allocation of R5.93 billion towards debt service costs;

– a proposed additional allocation of R48.5 million as unforeseeable and unavoidable expenditure through the Provincial Equitable Share for provincial Social Development departments for the continuation of care and protection of flood victims who were placed in shelters in KwaZulu-Natal;

– a proposed additional allocation of R306.26 million for State Owned Companies (SOEs): Denel R204.7 million and Land and Agricultural Development Bank R101.56 million; and

– a proposed additional allocation of R618.82 million for the skills levy and sector education and training authorities (SETAs).

The Special Appropriations Bill, on the other hand, proposes to Parliament to appropriate additional funds in the 2022/23 financial year for the requirements of the Vote (10) of Public Enterprises and Vote (40) Transport and to provide for matters connected therewith. This proposed additional funding is allocated to three State Owned Companies located across the Public Enterprises and Transport Votes, namely, Transnet SOC Limited (Transnet), Denel SOC Limited (Denel); and South African National Roads Agency SOC Limited (Sanral). The Bill proposes that R6, 278 billion and R23, 736 billion be appropriated from the NRF and be allocated to the Departments of Public Enterprises and Transport, respectively, for the 2022/2023 financial year.

The NCOP received the two Bills on 1 December 2022 after they were passed by the National Assembly.

Following deliberations in the House, the House agreed to adopt them without amendments.