Tito Mboweni to explain how relief financing will work

Finance minister Tito Mboweni will make an announcement on Friday on the Covid-19 relief financing, as well as any possible approach for funding from international finance institutions, BusinessLIVE reported.

Many questions have been raised about how the government will finance the R500bn stimulus package announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa earlier this week, and the minister is expected to address these.

Treasury deputy director-general Ismail Momoniat made the remarks in a briefing to parliament’s two finance committees on draft bills providing for the initial tax relief announced by Mboweni at the end of March.

“The minister is going to be making an announcement tomorrow, which is meant to be a more comprehensive response that will look at all the issues — the tax issues, the funding issues for the R500bn and some of the spending proposals, like on grants, how they will operate and for how long and so on.

“He will also deal with funding from the IMF [International Monetary Fund], the World Bank and the New Development Bank and what the conditionalities if any there are and so on.”

Along with the minister’s announcement, the Treasury will also provide supporting documents, Momoniat said.

DA finance spokesperson Geordin Hill-Lewis objected to Mboweni making a public announcement, saying that he should make a presentation to parliament first.

Momoniat said Mboweni’s announcement would be made during a scheduled virtual media briefing, which is scheduled to take place on Friday with several cabinet ministers.

Ministers who serve in the national coronavirus command council are scheduled to hold a media briefing on Friday at 10am on the implementation of the directives outlined by Ramaphosa on Tuesday and his address to the nation scheduled for Thursday.

The ministers will, among other issues, unpack socioeconomic relief and the strengthening of the performance of the economy under the current conditions.

Mboweni is also due to appear before parliament’s finance committees in a virtual meeting on Tuesday.