A Treasury official has warned that should the country go the fee-free higher education route‚ it must be prepared to live with the consequences – good or bad - for a long time. The Treasury made submissions to the Fees Commission in Vanderbeljpark‚ south of Johannesburg today. The Heher Commission of Inquiry is tasked to investigate whether free-fee higher education is feasible and make recommendation to President Jacob Zuma. The public hearings are expected to run until early next year. Speaking after presenting to the commission‚ deputy director-general in the budget office Michael Sachs said when the announcement of the 0% fee increase was made in December‚ the Treasury had to make drastic decisions to come up with the money to help make up the universities’ shortfall.The announcement of the 0% fee increase for 2016 came after student protests‚ which started in October.“When the 0% increase was announced we were then faced with a situation and there were discussion between government and the universities of how will we fill this gap and we estimated that the gap over the next three years would be R16-billion.“So we had to allocate money from other priorities within the system to find that R16-billion. There were reductions to budgets for compensation of national departments‚ there were reductions to budgets going to service delivery provided by provinces and there were reductions to local government budgets in order to fund that R16-billion‚” said Sachs.Sachs said if the country decided to take the path of free higher education money would have to come somewhere.“If we had to do so‚ we wouldn't be able to do so without there being consequences. We would either need to raise the resources from additional taxation or would need to re-allocate spending from some other area of government prioritise.“It would not make sense for us to borrow money to fund free education. What are the consequences of raising those taxes for households‚ consumers‚ for citizens? How should we distribute those taxes across the population in a way that it does not undermine economic growth and … sustains our revenue base so that we are able to keep this rising flow of social and economic rights?”He said there can be efficiency gains in the budget through combating waste in the system. “But the truth is that the size of the investment that is being proposed is so large that it is unlikely that you would get enough money simply from improving efficiency.”Earlier Sachs told the commission that the Treasury had not budgeted for a 0% fee increase next year.“[But] we will be prepared to respond to changes if they are there‚ although it would be much better if there was a social agreement about how to move forward so that we don't end up compromising other important government functions‚” he told journalists.Another student organisation boycotted the commission yesterday‚ even though it was schedule to make a presentation. The Economic Freedom Fighters Student Command did not show up at the commission today while the Pan African Movement of Students did not arrive yesterday.EFF student president Mpho Morolong said they will not participate in a “talk show that will not yield any positive results”. ..