SONA or Budget from the armchair?

I’d take a safe(ish) bet that a lot more people know about SONA this year and what it stands for than in previous years. SONA – is the state of the nation address – and this year it happens on 12th February at 7pm. If you are in Cape Town I believe it involves some road closures. There are also dress rehearsals for this event. This year it’s in focus – because it may be disrupted. A few years back it moved to 7pm so we could all watch it when we got home from work. TV dinner!

13 days after this event the nitty gritty starts and the Finance Minister presents his Budget. You can submit Budget 2015 tips (www.treasury.gov.za) and the Budget is widely broadcast.

It’s always a rush to get the documents printed – lots of traffic on the site in the first hour.

This year the Budget may well be a bit more watched because we are not yet sure if (or where) the increase in tax will come. It was a matter raised in 2014 – SA Inc is indeed in need of revenue. It is a matter of some uncertainty.

At the same time the Davis Tax Committee is busy with its work into our tax system and has already published interim report 1 – available on their website www.taxcom.org.za. So does the Finance Minister wait for this committee or does he make some changes now?

Much is needed from those managing our money. We have had years of waste, years of nice big hefty allocations, but the returns on those are yet to be realised.

SONA may be a headline grabber – but the real issues start making their presence after that. The Budget speech usually sets the right tone and says many admirable things – and then something happens when implementation starts.

We will be watching the Budget this year – but if it is really to be as prestigious as it needs to be – we need to pay more attention to how it is managed throughout the year.