The DA's Alternative Budget: how to restore confidence in South Africa
Note to editors: The following statement was distributed at a press conference held in Johannesburg today by Tim Harris MP, DA Shadow Minister of Finance, David Ross MP, DA Shadow Deputy Minister of Finance, and Dr Wilmot James MP, DA Shadow Minister of Trade & Industry.
The DA's Alternative Budget 2013 sets out how we would overhaul taxation and realign expenditure priorities, in line with our Plan for Growth and Jobs, to put South Africa on a path of job-creating growth.
This year our Alternative Budget shows how key policies can be implemented in support of 12 strategic focus areas of the National Development Plan.
It also responds directly to the major concerns of the credit rating agencies that led to South Africa's recent downgrades by detailing a plan to:
- Rebuild the institutional capacity of government to create an environment that is conducive to economic growth;
- Begin to moderate increases in government debt by reigning in the budget deficit; and
- Re-establish investor confidence in our country by showing that the government has a plan to boost economic growth and scale-up actual spending on infrastructure, which has fallen short of promised investment by around 22% for the past three years.