{"id":365552,"date":"2020-01-12T07:13:46","date_gmt":"2020-01-12T05:13:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=365552"},"modified":"2020-01-12T07:13:46","modified_gmt":"2020-01-12T05:13:46","slug":"r470000-for-serviettes-and-other-things-south-african-taxpayers-are-paying-for-at-state-funerals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/365552\/r470000-for-serviettes-and-other-things-south-african-taxpayers-are-paying-for-at-state-funerals\/","title":{"rendered":"R470,000 for serviettes &#8211; and other things South African taxpayers are paying for at state funerals"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Public works and Infrastructure minister Patricia de Lille plans to cap the cost of state and official funerals after taxpayers forked out millions for the services in 2018 and 2019.<\/p>\n<p>The <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeslive.co.za\/sunday-times\/news\/2020-01-12-minister-orders-criminal-charges-after-state-burials-cost-taxpayers-millions\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Sunday Times<\/a><\/strong> reports that the funerals of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela and two other ANC struggle stalwarts cost taxpayers R76 million, after the company that staged the funerals artificially inflated its invoices.<\/p>\n<p>According to invoices seen by the paper, some of the most notable costs include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>R7 million to hire padded chairs, leather couches and scatter cushions;<\/li>\n<li>R2.47 million for draping;<\/li>\n<li>R470,000 for serviettes;<\/li>\n<li>R695,000 for orchestra equipment<\/li>\n<li>R30,000 to dig three graves.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>De Lille said that her department has\u00a0given instruction to the relevant officials to lay criminal charges against the service provider.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The department intends to institute civil and criminal action to recover R7.7 million from the service provider in this regard,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Tax hikes<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>With government&#8217;s excessive spending set to continue, economist Dawie Roodt has warned that that further tax increases can be expected in 2020<\/p>\n<p>Roodt <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/363374\/economist-warns-of-tax-hikes-for-south-africans-in-2020\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">noted<\/a> <\/strong>that the state\u2019s debt is at record levels, meaning \u201cthere will be tax hikes\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe question is which one of the taxes will be increased? I am pretty sure that things like the fuel levy will be increased, and sin taxes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The economist said that the two taxes that can make a difference to the country\u2019s finances are personal income tax, and value-added tax (VAT) and that February\u2019s Budget will reveal all.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think personally personal income tax will be increased,\u201d Roodt said.<\/p>\n<p>Roodt\u2019s comments align with Treasury\u2019s revenue concerns which it outlined in its medium-term budget policy statement released at the end of October.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSignificant tax increases over the past several years leave only moderate scope to boost tax revenue at this time,\u201d the Treasury said.<\/p>\n<p>However, despite this limited scope, Treasury said that additional tax measures are under consideration to raise an extra R10 billion in fiscal 2021 \u2013 but did not provide any further details.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGiven the fiscal position we find ourselves in, all tax options need to be on the table,\u201d said Chris Axelson, chief director for economic tax analysis in the Treasury.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/364976\/will-2020-be-a-year-of-surprises-for-south-africa\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Will 2020 be a year of surprises for South Africa?<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Public works and Infrastructure minister Patricia de Lille plans to cap the cost of state and official funerals after taxpayers forked out millions for the services in 2018 and 2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":361174,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-365552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=365552"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365552\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":365564,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365552\/revisions\/365564"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/361174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}