Finance minister asks parliament to delay medium-term budget speech

Finance minister Enoch Godongwana has asked parliament to reschedule the tabling of the medium-term budget policy statement (MTBPS) by a week.

Parliament spokesperson Moloto Mothapo said on Tuesday the new date for the tabling of the policy statement would be November 11.

“The speaker [Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula] has accepted the finance minister’s request for this amendment on the National Assembly’s programme,” said Mothapo.

Godongwana was scheduled to table the MTBPS on November 4.

The National Treasury said the postponement was due to the local government elections, which will be held on November 1.

“All processes leading up to the finalisation of the MTBPS remain on track,” it said.

This is the third year in a row that the MTBPS is pushed back by a week at the finance minister’s request.

Last year’s statement was postponed because then finance minister Tito Mboweni wanted to accommodate cabinet decisions in respect of the 2020/21 adjusted estimates and the 2021 medium-term expenditure framework, as well as the implications of the time frames for the finalisation of government’s economic reconstruction and recovery plan on the budget process.

The year before then, both Mboweni and President Cyril Ramaphosa had “international commitments” which led to the delay of the 2019 speech.

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