The National Assembly at its plenary sitting on Thursday passed the Adjustments Appropriation Bill and the Special Appropriation Bill.
This comes after Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana tabled the two Bills when he presented the 2022 Medium Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) to Parliament on 26 October 2022.
Parliament in a statement said the Bills 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, 2018 (Act No. 13 of 2018).
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, 1999 (PFMA). 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”.
“The Adjustments Appropriation Bill provides for increases to allocations set out in the main Appropriation Act of 2022. Total in-year spending adjustments amounts 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,” said Parliament.
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 expenditures through the Provincial Equitable Share for the continuation of care and protection of flood victims who were placed in shelters in KwaZulu-Natal.
They also include a proposed additional allocation of R306.26 million for state-owned enterprises – R204.7 million for Denel as well as R101.56 million for the Land and Agricultural Development Bank. There is also 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, was referred to the committee in terms of Section 13 of the Money Bills Amendment Procedure and Related Matters Act No. 9 of 2009 (as amended by the Money Bills Amendments Procedure and Related Matters Amendment Act, No. 13 of 2018).
The Bill proposes to Parliament to appropriate additional funds in the 2022/23 financial year for the requirements of Vote 10 – Public Enterprises and Vote 40 – Transport. This proposed additional funding is allocated to three state-owned enterprises located across the Public Enterprises and Transport Votes, namely, Transnet, Denel, and the South African National Roads Agency (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 bills will be sent to the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) for consideration and concurrence. – SAnews.gov.za
