Parties not ruling out legal action against adoption of finance committee report supporting VAT hike

CAPE TOWN - Parties have not ruled out taking legal action against the adoption of a finance committee report which supports a VAT increase and additional recommendations.

The National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Finance on Tuesday night adopted the report on the fiscal framework and revenue proposals after hours of deliberations in Parliament.

But parties like the EFF and MK Party said that the report, which included recommendations from ActionSA, would not pass legal scrutiny.

The finance committees from the National Assembly and NCOP voted separately on the report following a joint meeting.

The report included recommendations from ActionSA, which calls for the suspension of increases and also requests Treasury to find alternatives to fill the funding gap in 30 days and come back to Parliament.

But the EFF's Sinawo Thambo said that ActionSA's proposal that was supported by the ANC, had no legal standing and was not provided for in current laws.

"No court would accept what has happened here today because there's no appreciation of legislation that guides, there's a convolution of two separate reports."

But ActionSA's Alan Beesley, who presented the proposal, said that their move was legally sound.

"Yes, I'm very confident and only time will tell if it gets taken to court but we're very happy an confident, it's been worked on for a while and we're confident that it will stay."

But MK Party MP, Des van Rooyen, said that even if the National Assembly adopted the report and its recommendation, it could still be reversed through the courts.

The DA, meanwhile, said that the ANC and ActionSA had joined forces to betray South Africans.