New councils get first payments

of Revenue Act. The extra payment was authorised in the act and the date set in a notice signed off by Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan in a notice issued on Friday.

Not all the municipalities get the extra payment date – for example, Mangaung is the only metro which will use the extra payment date.

The equitable share is the biggest source of funds for most municipalities. This is the money collected by the national government and shared between the local governments; this is used for general budgeting and is an unconditional allocation, unlike the conditional grants, which may be used only for specific purposes.

The total equitable share for the municipalities for 2016/17 is R52.569bn. Although the national and municipal financial years are different, the money is paid over from July to March when both financial years overlap.

Population numbers are taken into account, so KwaZulu-Natal gets the biggest share (R10.4bn), followed by Gauteng (R9.3bn).

About R20.3bn or 39 percent of that was handed out to the municipalities in a single payment on July 4, immediately after the new municipal financial year started; that’s the biggest payment of the year.

In addition to the R52.569bn equitable share, the municipalities also receive R41.132bn in conditional grant funding and the metros get R11.224bn from the fuel levy.

This is a total of R104.925bn in national funding.