WE HAVE THE FUNDS TO PAY FOR VACCINES, SAYS TREASURY’S MOGAJANE

JOHANNESBURG - National Treasury’s Director- General Dondo Mogajane has maintained it has the funds to secure vaccines and that finance won’t be an issue for South Africans to receive doses.

Mogajane was speaking during a virtual engagement between Treasury officials and the South African National Editors’ Forum on Wednesday.

“If any of the manufacturers come tomorrow and say, ‘ We need the money,’ we will be able to pay,” said Mogajane.

The cost of vaccinating about 40 million South Africans is estimated between R20 billion and R24 billion, said

Mogajane. He, however, highlighted that final figures - and details on how funding would be provided - would be made clear at the tabling of the national budget in Parliament on February 24.

He detailed three main options for financing vaccines: the first being taxes, which is how government funds most operations.“We are not saying we are going to increase VAT. We are not saying we are going to increase Pay-As-You-Earn. We are not saying we are going to increase Corporate Income Tax. All we are saying, the option is available …” he said.

Secondly, government could increase borrowing if there are limited resources, which according to Mogajane has been the case for a number of years.

Treasury is still in negotiations to secure a loan from the World Bank, deputy director-general of asset and liability management Tshepiso Moahloli confirmed. “All sources of funding would be considered and would be made available at the time of the budget,” said Moahloli. Thirdly, reprioritising of existing budgets is also on the table - even though Treasury is now cutting close to the bone, as Mogajane put it. “We have been reprioritising to a point where we are reaching the bone of some of government programmes, so we cannot cut any further.” – FIN24.