The Democratic Alliance (DA) on Wednesday said it expected Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan to announce more haircuts for government and reprioritise funding to programmes to employ young people in the country.

DA spokesperson on finance David Maynier said a comprehensive spending review, which was on the party’s wishlist ahead of the budget being tabled, would have served the young and unemployed.

“This year the government will be spending R14.3-billion on bloated executives and legislatures throughout the country. We think that there is further scope for spending cuts…that is the only way that we believe that we will be able to sufficiently reprioritise expenditure so that we can fund programmes that give hope young people, especially those who do not have jobs or have given up looking for jobs in South Africa,” said Maynier.

The country’s largest opposition party said while higher income earners would see increased taxes, all personal income tax earners are impacted by the budget.

“The truth is that all personal income tax payers are going to be affected because only R4.4-billlon would be raised from the new higher tax bracket for taxable income earners of above R1.5-million. R12.5-billion will be raised from the balance of personal income tax payments through very limited relief on fiscal drag…,” said Maynier.