Higher taxes, better collections or both?

Having started off the budget preparation season with warnings about the need for austerity and belt-tightening last December, Finance Minister, Ndaba Gaolathe, increasingly spoke about the need for greater efficiencies in public finances, including optimised collections. “One of the things that we are performing poorly in as a government system is actually our revenue collection systems,” he said at the pitso for general stakeholders late in January. “So, forget about increasing taxes and increasing fees, but just optimising what’s already on the table like our systems for example.

“Not to scare you but I have to confess that you find that the custom system doesn’t talk to the income tax system and that the local government collection system doesn’t talk to the executive government system. “We are doing work around digitalisation and we believe if we do it right as one unified system, it will make a big difference without increasing fees and without increasing taxes.” Yet, as we assess the current state of discipline in many schools, we must confront an uncomfortable reality: student delinquency appears to be spiralling beyond control. Reports of bullying, classroom disruption, open defiance of teachers, and even violence amongst students are increasingly common. Teachers, once regarded as authoritative figures capable of maintaining order, now often find themselves struggling to manage classrooms effectively….