Deputy Speaker, I would like to start off by thanking the Standing Committee on Finance for the work that they have done in going through what must be technically difficult matters and thank hon Maswanganyi for his leadership of the committee.
Hon members, in this House, it is always good to return to what the purpose of this discussion is all about after everything else has been said. The purpose here is to consider and adopt the rates and monitory amounts and amendment of Revenue Laws Bill to the Taxation Laws Amendment Bill and thirdly, the Tax Administration Laws Amendment Bill.
It has got nothing to do with what the leader of Cope was talking about. Under normal circumstances he should have been called to order that he was out of order. It might be the case that he has not read the documentation. Nevertheless, our job is to help you understand what this is all about.
In the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement, we indicted very clearly the difficulties that this country is going through and there is no need to repeat that here. The economic growth rate is disappointing and we know that. The question is what to do about it. We know that the expenditure continues to put a lot of pressure on the budgets. We know what we can afford and what we can't afford and the question is what to do about it.
Our role as the leadership is to implement a set of policies and programmes to make sure that we get our act back in order. In this instance as you know, following on the Nugent Commission of Inquiry Report, we have now begun to restructure Sars to put it back to what it is supposed to be. We have appointed the new Sars Commissioner who is hard at work ensuring that we render unto Caesar what belongs to Caesar, all of us.
He has already begun to build the large business centre unit and also the Illicit Economy Unit and these are already beginning to bear fruits. I have indicated in this House before that we have already had some successes particularly at the border posts in stopping illegal cigarettes coming into the country, in particular, at the Beit Bridge border post and we have been successful in that regard.
I know that the tobacco industry is keen on reducing the tax burden that they carry but they know every year we have to make adjustments to the excise duties on tobacco. And I know, they have come with many explanations about how in their view the increase in excise duties has not
brought above more revenue but instead, it has lessened the revenue. I think it is a good discussion to have but, we have to continue to adjust the excise duties unfortunately. In short hon members, as I always say, I thank you very much for your contributions and I thank again the committee and the Chair for the leadership. Thank you very much. Debate concluded.