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The National Assembly (NA) has, during its plenary yesterday, adopted the Standing Committee on Appropriation’s report on the 2024 Division of Revenue Amendment Bill [B13 – 2024].

The Bill seeks to amend the Division of Revenue Act of 2024 in accordance with the Money Bills and Related Matters Act of 2009 [as amended in 2018]. The Minister of Finance tabled the Bill in Parliament on 30 October 2024 during the presentation of the 2024 Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS), in terms of section 12(4) of the Act.

The Act requires the Minister of Finance to table a Division of Revenue Amendment Bill with a revised fiscal framework if the adjustments budget requires changes to the Division of Revenue Act for the relevant year. There are amendments to the 2024 budget that affect the Division of Revenue Act and these will be effected through the Division of Revenue Amendment Act, once enacted. The amendments affect provinces and municipalities.

The recommended amendments to the Bill will positively impact on the national education infrastructure programme, provincial governments, municipalities and other national government-related funding programmes, such as the additional funding to provincial conditional grants, additional funding to the Municipal Disaster Recovery Grant, reprioritisation from the Public Transport Network Grant, and rescheduling of Budget Facility for Infrastructure-funded projects. The Bill further proposes shifts of funds and virements, rollovers and amendments to conditional grant frameworks for the ring-fencing of additional funds to allow for specific spending focus.

The Bill proposed, amongst other things, that R948 million be added to provincial conditional grants to fund the reconstruction and rehabilitation of provincial infrastructure damaged by the flood and storm surges that occurred in the Western Cape between December 2023 and July 2024. It also proposed R36 million be rolled over in the School Infrastructure Backlogs Grant for projects under the Sanitation Appropriation for Education Initiative for schools in the Eastern Cape. In addition, the Bill proposed R300 million be reprioritised from the Public Transport Network Grant to the Taxi Relief Fund. The fund was introduced as a relief measure during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic but has since been extended and is now part of the department’s efforts to formalise the taxi industry.

The Bill was referred to the Standing Committee on Appropriation on 13 November 2024 after the National Assembly adopted the 2024 Revised Fiscal Framework. In its report on the Bill, the committee welcomed the proposed additional allocations but noted with concern the proposed reprioritisation of R300 million from the Public Transport Network Grant to the Taxi Relief Fund to extend the Covid-19 initiative to bring relief to the taxi industry. The committee report expressed concerned about the consistent diversion of funds meant for the accelerated construction and improvements of public non-motorised transport infrastructure that forms part of the municipal public transport network. Both municipalities and the taxi industry need this public infrastructure constructed through this grant and the committee would thus like to urge the government to do budget reprioritisation elsewhere and refrain from reprioritising funds targeting the improvement and investment in municipal infrastructure. 

Having considered the Bill, the Standing Committee on Appropriation recommended that the NA adopt the Bill without amendments. The Bill will now be sent to the National Council of Provinces.

Issued by Parliament