CATEGORIES
- (31)Agriculture, Land Reform & Rural Development
- (27)Auditors & Accountants
- (7)Broad-based Black Economic Empowerment
- (6)Built Environment
- (67)Communications & Digital Technologies
- (2)Company Law
- (2)Consumer Law
- (21)Courts
- (3)Criminal Law
- (1)Cybercrimes
- (2)Disaster Management
- (15)Education & Training
- (5)Electoral Law
- (108)Environmental Law
- (4)Family Law
- (148)Financial Sector
- (4)Fisheries & Aquaculture
- (6)General Interest
- (23)Health & Safety
- (22)Home Affairs
- (3)Housing
- (20)In the Spotlight
- (1)International Co-operation
- (69)Justice & Constitutional Development
- (58)Labour Law
- (18)Legal Practice Council
- (23)Local & Provincial Government
- (27)Minerals & Energy
- (1)Monetary Policy
- (2)National Development Plan
- (19)National Treasury
- (79)New Legislation
- (18)Opportunities for Public Comment
- (7)POPIA
- (300)Parliament
- (1)Practice Management
- (5)Presidency
- (18)Property Law
- (9)Public Service
- (4)Retirement Reform
- (15)Road Accident Fund
- (24)Safety and Security
- (8)Small Business Development
- (24)Social Development
- (11)Sport, Arts & Culture
- (15)State Owned Enterprises
- (4)State of Disaster (energy)
- (20)Taxation
- (8)Tourism
- (77)Trade, Industry & Competition
- (37)Transport
- (16)Water & Sanitation
- Show All
BUDGET 2025/26: REVISED, WITH FUEL LEVY INCREASE
- 21 May 2025
- Parliament
- SA Legal Academy
Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana’s revised 2025/26 Budget compensates for the loss of revenue from reversing the original value-added tax rate increase by reducing the size of originally proposed allocations across all spheres of government. This is according to the Minister’s official Budget speech, which states that ‘baseline allocations’ nevertheless ‘remain largely unchanged’. Instead, ‘the size of the proposed increases to (provisional) allocations is reduced’, in line with fiscal affordability. This is noting that ‘provisional allocations (are those) not yet assigned to votes’.
As a result, although government’s ‘ability to fund additional … programmes and projects’ is ‘significantly reduced’, the 2025/26 Budget nevertheless ‘supports sustainable finances, the social wage and investments in economic growth’. It is therefore ‘not an austerity budget’ but a ‘redistributive budget’.
Against that backdrop, key elements include:
- an increase in non-interest expenditure ‘by an average of 5.4% over three years’ (0.8% growth in real terms)
- directing ’61 cents of every rand of consolidated, non-interest expenditure towards the social wage’ [‘to fund free basic services like electricity, water, education, healthcare (and) affordable housing, as well as social grants for those in need’], and
- investing over R1trn in critical infrastructure (to improve ‘economic growth prospects and … access to basic services’.
The Minister is apparently confident that this can be achieved ‘without compromising the fiscal strategy of sustainable public finances’.
The only ‘new’ tax proposal included in the revised 2025/26 Budget is ‘an inflation-linked increase to the general fuel levy', which will rise by 16 cents per litre for petrol and 15 cents per litre for diesel from 1 June 2025.
In anticipation of parliamentary hearings on 28 May 2025, the National Assembly and NCOP Committees on Finance have issued a joint notice calling for writen submissions on the revised fiscal framework and revenue proposals by 26 May 2025.
- speech
- related documents
- replacement Appropriation Bill
- replacement Division of Revenue Bill
- joint National Assembly and NCOP Finance Committee notice
Published by SA Legal Academy Policy Watch
Follow us on X @SALegalAcademy (you can also join us on LinkedIn and Facebook)