If finance minister Enoch Godongwana welcomed more engagement on the budget — as he said on budget day he did — he certainly has it now.
The revised budget he managed to table on March 12 is now wending its way through the relevant parliamentary committees, with much more than the usual attention being paid to their deliberations by market players and other stakeholders.
The parliamentary budget processes have always provided for experts and others to have their say. But it’s only now for the first time that parliament can determine whether the budget is approved as tabled. That makes the quality of debate in parliament more important than before. And so far it hasn’t been overwhelming.
The Financial and Fiscal Commission complained it hadn’t been consulted and emphasised the “pressing need for a zero-balanced budget through effective debt and expenditure management interventions”, whatever that means.
The parliamentary budget office called for an expansionary fiscal policy to stimulate demand and lead to stronger economic growth, noting that “an economic strategy focused only on increasing infrastructure spending will not be enough to shift the economy from its current low growth trajectory”.
The Government Technical Advisory Centre offered details of some of the hundreds of spending reviews it has conducted, but they seemed rather timid, not the big cuts to pointless programmes that some have called for.
We have yet to see thoughtful, thoroughly researched alternatives to the March 12 budget.
Given tight timelines in parliament, fiscal experts and political parties will need to up their game.
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