ActionSA warns ANC it will pull support for national budget if VAT hike not retracted

CAPE TOWN - ActionSA said that the African National Congress (ANC) could not expect to count on its continued support for the national budget if it doesn’t retract the proposed VAT increase of 0.5 percentage points in May. 

Reflecting on its position a day after it supported the fiscal framework in the National Assembly on Wednesday, parliamentary leader, Athol Trollip, said that with the division of revenue and appropriation bills still to be discussed, there was a long way to go before the budget was a done deal.

ALSO READ: After backing budget framework, ActionSA weighing decision to join GNU

The party insisted that no VAT remained a red line for it.

"If we don't find a solution in 27 days time, don't look to us to support you to pass the rest of this budget. The passage of this budget is still a long, long way away and the people they've convinced to get them out of the hole that they’ve dug for themselves are not going to continue doing that if they show no good faith. So, we are going to hold the ANC to account."

Trollip said that his party got the cold shoulder from the Democratic Alliance (DA) when it tried to engage it on finding alternatives to contents in the budget it did not agree with.

It said the position the GNU's second-largest party now found itself in was of its own making. 

"Not only were we rebuffed, we were maligned, we were insulted. Mr Alan Beesly was treated with such contempt by Mr Mark Burke, who's made it an art form to be unreasonable. We engaged with the ANC, actually they engaged us. I've engaged with the EFF, I wrote to the MKP, they blue ticked us, that’s fine, no problem, but what is ironic, the DA spoke to nobody other than the ANC, making their demands their unreasonable demands. They overplayed their hand."