The 2009 Budget in a nutshell

The pain

• Cigarettes go up by 88cents a pack, which is an increase of 13%
• Fuel goes up by 40.5 cents a litre for petrol and 41.5 cents for diesel
• Light bulbs that are not electricity effecient will attract a R3 levy
• The tax on wine will go up by 10.5 cents a bottle, beer by 7 cents a can and spirits by R3.21 a bottle
• New cars will be taxed according to their carbon output
• Economic growth is forecast to fall to 1.2% of GDP this year
• Inflation will hover just below the target ceiling at 5.8%
• SAA needs another R1.6-billion to stay alive, and
• State borrowing will double and the budget deficit will rise to 3.8% of GDP

The Pleasure

• Personal taxes drop by R13.6-billion, of which R9-billion will go to compensate for inflation
• Welfare grants will increase by about 5% and the cut-off age for the R240 child support grant will increase to 15, affect 500 000 children
• R4.1-billion will be added to the expanded public works budget
• R4-billion more will be spent on school feeding programmes
• R5.4-billion will be added to the war chest to fight crime, including 20,000 more police by 2012
• An additional R6.4-billion will be allocated for public transport impovement, and
• R932-million more will be set aside to fight HIV/Aids and ramp up the number of people on anti-retroviral treatment from 630 000 now to 1.4-million by 2012