The DA plans to introduce a Private Member’s Bill to deal with what the party calls “staggering levels” of national debt and service costs.
This was announced by the party’s spokesperson on finance David Maynier during the National Treasury’s budget vote debate in Parliament.
During the debate Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene said the budget deficit for 2017/18 is expected to be marginally narrower than previously projected.
Maynier, however, says the proposed Bill will prevent certain budgetary miscalculations.
“Had this Fiscal Responsibility Bill been in place, the former Minister of Finance Malusi Gigaba would not have had the discretion to deliver his now infamous MTBPS which blew up the budget and risked a catastrophic full blown sovereign credits ratings downgrade to junk status. In SA the Fiscal Responsibility Bill is to the best of my knowledge the first proposed statutory fiscal rule in SA we still have a lot of work to do before introducing the final version of the bill in Parliament,” he says.
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