UPDATE | Parliament agrees to delay Mboweni's mini budget by a week

Parliament has approved a request to postpone finance minister Tito Mboweni's mini budget by a week.

Mboweni this week asked parliament to reschedule the tabling of the medium term budget policy statement (MTBPS).

Parliament announced on Tuesday that National Assembly speaker Thandi Modise had received a request from Mboweni for an alternate date of Wednesday October 28.

Mboweni was scheduled to table the MTBPS on October 21. Parliament's spokesperson Moloto Mothapo confirmed on Thursday that the National Assembly's programme committee had accepted Mboweni's request.

In a statement announcing Mboweni's request, parliament said: “In his correspondence to the speaker, minister Mboweni highlights the recent complex decisions taken by cabinet in respect of the 2020/21 adjusted estimates and the 2021 MTEF [medium term expenditure framework], as well as the implications of the time frames for the finalisation of government’s economic reconstruction and recovery plan on the budget process as reasons necessitating the proposed rescheduling.”

During the MTBPS, Mboweni will table the:

• 2020 medium term budget policy statement

• 2020 adjustment estimates of the national expenditure

• Second 2020 Adjustments Appropriation Bill

• Second 2020 Division of Revenue Bill

• 2020 Tax Law Amendment Bill

• 2020 Tax Law Administration Bill and

• 2020 Rates and Monetary Amounts Bill

This is the second year in a row that the MTBPS would be pushed back a week at Mboweni's request. Last year's statement was postponed because of “international commitments” by the finance minister and President Cyril Ramaphosa.

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