NATIONAL NEWS - Finance Minister Tito Mboweni delivered his first Budget Speech for 2020 yesterday and outlined the areas in which government will be spending your tax money.
He highlighted that the total consolidated government spending is expected to grow at an average annual rate of 5.1%.
He also said that the government will be focusing on spending on learning and culture, health and social services this quarter.
OpenUp, a civic tech organisation, has updated its annual Tax Clock with the latest tax information from Mboweni’s budget. It is part of their mandate to build free tools that promote active citizenry and help people make informed decisions for positive social change.
They’ve come up with the Tax Clock, an easy-to-use tool that calculates the time you spend each day contributing to government services such as education, health or national debt – and the time that you spend working for yourself.
How does it work?
Visit Tax Clock online, enter your salary and you’ll get a minute-by-minute break down of how long you work each day helping to pay for different parts of government costs like debt, education and defence.
Director of OpenUp, Adi Eyal, says the Tax Clock is an opportunity for people to engage with the budget through the money they earn – and the tax they pay.
“When the budget comes out, people are usually only interested in how much they will be paying and if there are any rebates they can get. But they don’t engage with what the budget is really about,” he said.
