MBABANE: Finance Minister Neal Rijikernberg has announced a Pay as You Earn(PAYE) increase from 33% to 36% shortly after the Government declined to increase salaries for civil servants.
These new developments as announced by the Finance Minister in his budget speech mean civil servants who earn from R4000.00 upwards will now have their monthly salaries reduced by 36% being monies used to sustain King Mswati’s lavish
lifestyle.
The civil servants who might be affected by the tax increase include Members of Parliament(MPs) police officers, soldiers, Correctional Services officers and nurses among others.
Apart from the Pay as You Earn, civil servants are expected to pay other taxes that include the Value Added Tax(VAT) and Fuel Tax for those with cars and Corporate Tax for those who own companies.
“Government intends to lift the tax brackets leaving more cash in people’s pockets earning less than E250 000 per year. Individuals will now only start paying tax from E4 000 per month instead of E3 500 per month. Unfortunately, we cannot afford to have this reduction other than lifting the upper limits of those earning more”, the Finance Minister said.
Neal Rijikernberg said the proposal was to lift the upper tax bracket from 33 percent to 36 percent.
“This would mean that 80 percent of the taxpayers would be better off with more money in their pockets and 20 percent of higher income earners paid more than E300 000 per year would be worse off. This measure will be addressing our income inequality”, said the Finance Minister when delivering his budget speech in Parliament on Friday.
Finance Minister Neal Rijikernberg.