On Wednesday, 26 October, Minister of Finance Mr Pravin Gordhan is scheduled to deliver the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) to the National Assembly (NA).

He is also - on Wednesday - scheduled to introduce the Adjustments Appropriation Bill. This sets out the revised expenditure to be made available to fund government programmes.

The MTBPS updates the revenue, spending and borrowing projections for the coming year and shows how the country’s limited resources should be used to sustain programmes necessary to keep the South African democratic state on course. It includes a revised fiscal framework for the current financial year and a proposed fiscal framework for the next three years, an explanation of the projections and assumptions of the fiscal framework, a review of actual spending by each national department and each provincial government between 1 April and 30 September of the current financial year. It also includes proposed substantial adjustments (if any) to conditional grant allocations to provinces and local government and three-year national government spending priorities and proposed divisions of revenue.

The MTBPS makes it possible for Parliament and the public to interact with government's budget plans several months ahead of the budget, itself, in February next year.

For example, Committees, with oversight over specific government departments, review these departments’ delivery and the effectiveness and efficiency of their current use of available resources and future use of resources. These Budget Review and Recommendation (BRR) reports must be tabled in the NA before reports on the MTBPS are adopted.

The finance committees and the appropriations committees of the NA and National Council of Provinces (NCOP) also play a special role. Thirty days after the Minister tables the MTBPS, the finance committees of the two Houses must report on the proposed fiscal framework and the appropriations committees must report on the proposed division of revenue and grant allocations to provinces and local governments. The Division of Revenue Amendment Bill is then considered. In December, the NA is scheduled to consider reports on the MTBPS from its finance and appropriations committees and to consider the votes and schedule of the Adjustments Appropriation Bill and the bill itself. The NCOP will then, also in December, consider the bill.

Issued by Parliamentary Communication Services