Treasury warns of urgency to pass grants bill

THE national Treasury has warned of the dire implications if the Division of Revenue Amendment Bill is not passed before year end.

While expressing confidence the bill will be passed before the end of the year after it was stalled for two days when the National Assembly could not achieve a quorum, the Treasury said in a statement the failure to pass this bill and the Adjustments Appropriation Bill could affect the provision of services to several government institutions.

The Division of Revenue Amendment Bill proposes revisions to the national government equitable share and to conditional grants to provinces and municipalities.

“Delayed departmental spending of increased allocations may hamper service delivery and may even mean that departments are unable to spend funds effectively before the end of the 2016/17 financial year.

“This may result in under- spending,” the statement issued yesterday said.

The bills propose allocation reductions which are not yet approved and institutions may spend the funds before the bills are law. If so spent, institutions will be unable to return the required funds to the fiscus after the bills have become law. Ultimately insti- tutions would then be deemed to have overspent their budget allocations at financial year end.” The Division of Revenue Amendment Bill has been rescheduled and will put on the agenda for Tuesday’s National Assembly sitting. While some of the biggest opposition parties deliberately left the House on Tuesday and Wednesday, it emerged many ANC MPs were not in the house to use their majority to reach the quorum of 201 votes. – ANA