PENSION FUNDS AMENDMENT BILL HEADS TO PARLIAMENT

PENSION FUNDS AMENDMENT BILL HEADS TO PARLIAMENT

• 26 October 2023
• Retirement Reform
• SA Legal Academy

In anticipation of tabling a Pension Funds Amendment Bill in Parliament, National Treasury has gazetted an exceptionally brief explanatory summary of its contents.

Apparently, the Bill’s overarching objective is to ‘provide for the implementation of the first phase of the “two pot” retirement system’. However, according to the Government Gazette notice the Bill will only be available once it has been formally introduced.

A Pension Funds Amendment Bill introduced in Parliament in November 2020 was revived in March 2022 but allowed to lapse a few months later. At the time, its purpose was to ‘allow pension fund members to obtain a loan, secured by a guarantee from a registered pension fund, to alleviate financial pressure during an emergency such as the Covid-19 (pandemic)’.

The draft Revenue Laws Amendment Bill and draft Revenue Administration & Pension Laws Amendment Bill now being considered by the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Finance (as the first step in a long parliamentary process) may have been informed by stakeholder input on the 2020 Pension Funds Amendment Bill before it lapsed.

Whatever the case, the lapsed Bill appears to have been overtaken by plans for introducing a two-pot retirement savings system:

• formally announced by Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana in his February 2022 Budget speech, and
• given expression in a draft Revenue Laws Amendment Bill released in June that year for public comment but not taken any further until a year later, with the release for public comment of:
  • the 2023 draft Revenue Laws Amendment Bill, and
  • 2023 draft Revenue Administration & Pension Laws Amendment Bill.

Revenue/'money' Bills are generally considered in draft form by the parliamentary committees concerned before being finalised and formally introduced with the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS). The next MTBPS is expected to be delivered on 1 November 2023. 

• explanatory summary of upcoming 2023 Pension Funds Amendment Bill
• 2020 Pension Funds Amendment Bill (lapsed) 
• 2022 draft Revenue Laws Amendment Bill (never tabled)
• 2023 draft Revenue Laws Amendment Bill (now beng considered by the National Assembly's Standing Committee on Finance)
• 2023 draft Revenue Administration & Pension Laws Amendment Bill (now beng considered by the National Assembly's Standing Committee on Finance) 

Published by SA Legal Academy Policy Watch

0 COMMENTS

LEAVE A COMMENT