#Budget2015 tax hike 'a sad day': FF+

It was lamentable that government could not balance the books without a personal income tax increase, the Freedom Front Plus said on Wednesday.

"I think it's a sad day in the sense that [in] the government of 20 years, there was no personal tax increase really, and now for the first time there is one percent," party leader Pieter Mulder said in reaction to Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene's budget tabled in Parliament.

"That shows that they couldn't balance their books without that. Surely, if they should have a tax increase, I would've preferred VAT (value added tax) then.

He said hiking VAT by one percent would have contributed between R18 billion to R20 billion to the fiscus and solved the government's problem.

He lamented government opting for a personal income tax hike, as it would affect a small number of people, with high-income citizens having to carry the greater part of the burden.

"It's becoming too heavy," Mulder said.

He called state-owned enterprises (SOEs) "children that are not becoming independent".

"They are not being privatised in a sense and still need money and they'll never be on their own legs if we do continue this way," Mulder said.

"The centralisation, maybe we can fight corruption that way. Let's hope it's better, but then surely the administration must be good enough that there is no bottleneck there.

"That's the risk on the other side. We'll have that problem at the end of the day."

Nene announced some personal income tax increases, a raise of the general fuel levy, of the Road Accident Fund (RAF) levy, and of the electricity levy, and increased excise duties.

Consolidated government spending was expected to be R1.35 trillion and revenue about R1.2tn. GDP was projected to grow from two percent in 2015 to 2.4 percent in 2016, and three percent in 2017.