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Manyeconomists say the mid-term budget faces a huge shortfall in tax revenues.
InJohannesburg, VOA reporter Delia Robertson says, "South Africa has been hit bythe recession along with the rest of the world. And so, this time around…the Finance Minister, Pravin Gordhan, is likelyto have to report a deficit in revenue collection by…nearly as much as $12billion."
Theoutlook is much bleaker than when the budget was first introduced in February.
"Ithink in February it wasn't quite clear just how deeply the recession wasbiting South Africa. But that has becomeabundantly clear in the months since then," she says.
What's causing the shortfall?
"It'sgot a lot to with a shortfall in revenue collection from businesses. The mining industry is down. The manufacturing sector is down. Motor vehicle production sector is down. So these are all major producers in SouthAfrica," she says.
Theprojected revenue shortfall could change proposed spending plans of the Zumaadministration.
"Itmakes it extremely difficult for Mr. Zuma and his government to fulfill thepromises they made to the electorate in general elections this year. They also have ambitious plans to introduce anational health insurance scheme and other initiatives that will require a lotof money. And it looks like they'regoing to have to instead curtail their spending," she says.
World Cup preparations appear safe
"Almostall of the work that was planned for the World Cup has already been budgeted.They money's already been allocated. Thestadiums are almost all complete and will be complete in time. But that money was already available," shesays.
TheSouth African government had already invested in rail and road improvements, aswell.
"Thatwork is already very much underway," she says.
Robertsonsays the projected budgetary problems may not have a large affect on SouthAfrica's already high unemployment rate.
"I think we've already seen theimpact," she says, "the fact that jobs have been lost. There are signs of a slowdown in thatrecession and so…we may have seen the worst of the job losses, but probablyuntil the end of this year we will continue to see more."
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