News24.com | Budget 2023 | Everything you need to know

Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana, Deputy Minister David Masondo, acting Treasury DG Ismail Momoniat, and SARS Commissioner Edward Kieswetter.

Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana tabled the 2023 Budget on Wednesday. Here is all of News24 Business' coverage: 

Budget 2023's big news: Eskom debt, solar tax bonanza and tough choices

This year's National Budget, delivered on Wednesday, was dominated by South Africa's power woes, with Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana announcing that government will take over a large part of Eskom's debt.

In addition, major tax incentives were announced to encourage more South Africans to embrace renewables and get off the grid.

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Huge bailout for Eskom to come with strings attached

The National Treasury will relieve Eskom of R254 billion of its debt over the next three years but has imposed far-reaching conditions, which include that it concession out some of its power stations to the private sector. 

The Treasury hopes that the debt relief will set the company on a path to sustainability. Eskom has R422 billion of debt, mostly incurred from the building of mega power stations Medupi and Kusile, which it cannot service from the revenue it earns. This has weighed down Eskom's operational capacity, impeded cash flows for crucial functions like maintenance and limited its ability to borrow to expand the transmission grid. 

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Govt is so desperate to end load shedding it's happy to slash your taxes

Government, which is desperate to end load shedding, will reward households and businesses with tax deductions if they opt for renewables.

On Wednesday, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana, during the tabling of the Budget, announced two tax measures to support the rollout of renewables by businesses and households and thereby relieve pressure on the national grid to reduce load shedding.

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All the big tax announcements

This year's Budget brings some relief to taxpayers, and where there are tax hikes, they are relatively benign. As for businesses and households that are planning to install solar, a mini tax bonanza awaits.

Currently, businesses that launch solar photovoltaic (PV) projects below 1MW are able to deduct 100% of the cost from their tax liability in the first year.

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Energy bounce-back scheme to be launched in April

The government is reworking its bounce-back loan guarantee scheme to support the rollout of renewables for small businesses that want to beat load shedding.

During the tabling of the National Budget on Wednesday, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana announced that the existing loan guarantee scheme - that was initially designed to help businesses recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic – would be used to incentivise renewable energy and rooftop solar. The Energy Bounce Back Scheme, as it will be known, is to be launched in April 2023.

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Uncertainty hangs over wage bill

Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana's commitment to negotiate with trade unions first before inking in a wage increase has left a hole at the heart of the Budget, leaving economists and analysts guessing whether the fiscal framework will hang together.

The Treasury has pencilled in a 3.3% increase in the wage bill over the medium term. However, this is unlikely to be the final outcome as government last week tabled a 4.5% increase offer for 2023/24 in the Public Sector Coordinating Bargaining Council. 

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Prepare for possibility of grey-listing, warns Godongwana

Amid expectations that South Africa will be added to the global anti-money laundering body's grey list on Friday, Treasury says the country needs more prosecutions and the freezing of more assets to demonstrate its compliance.

"We should be prepared for that possibility," said Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana of grey-listing in his Budget speech on Wednesday.

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SAA gets R1bn, future financial injections not ruled out

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