http://www.politics.za.net/articles/2006/02/14/budget-day en-us 40 Third world country. First world politics. <p>Well tomorrow Finance Minister Trevor Manuel will be giving his tenth national budget. This is probably the most important speech given in parliament during the year (even more so than the State of the Nation in my opinion) as it actually produces tangiable results.</p> <p>With the introduction of the <acronym title="Accelerated Shared Growth Initiative">ASGI</acronym> I expect a budget geared to unlock growth, with further tax cuts and relaxation of foreign currency exchange controls.</p> <p>I&#8217;m hoping for efforts to make SA exporters more competitive, a massive boost in public transport and hopefully radical telecommunications liberalisation. I know that last item really isn&#8217;t in Manuel&#8217;s portfolio but seeing as our current Minister of Communications seems to be asleep at the wheel who better than Manuel and when better than tomorrow?</p> Tue, 14 Feb 2006 11:50:00 -0600 urn:uuid:d55cf17bac7f39b10594b6112dd3870c Farrel http://www.politics.za.net/articles/2006/02/14/budget-day Finance National Government http://www.politics.za.net/articles/trackback/49 <p>Well, budget day has come and gone and I&#8217;m not happy: having just bought a house and paid an arm and a leg in transfer duty, I now hear that the exemption threshold has been raised to half a million Rands. I missed out on that! Gaaaaaa!</p> Wed, 15 Feb 2006 12:49:42 -0600 urn:uuid: http://www.politics.za.net/articles/2006/02/14/budget-day#comment-379