Hon Chairperson, hon Minister, on the subject of sustainability our tax and levy moral is based on the principle that one pays tax for services received as well as some of our taxes are used to provide services to those who cannot afford such services. One can thus argue that this is called a responsible state. Overtaxed South Africans are increasingly feeling marginalised from services but there is a growing but concerning idea of a tax revolt. Minister, these are overtaxed residents asking why they should continue paying taxes and levies if it does not show any return in
the form of services they are paying for which have been looted by politicians and officials.
These are questions by the working class people because they pay their taxes and levies but they are affectively overtaxed and now even more so with new levies and fees suggested by the fiscal commission. Minister, considering that paying South Africans are increasingly being alienated from basic services. What is your department doing to ensure that the tax fountain in municipalities maintained by those South Africans do not run dry?
The DEPUTY MINISTER OF COOPERATIVE GOVERNANCE AND TRADITIONAL
AFFAIRS: Hon Chairperson, I think it is important to indicate that in terms of the Local Government system there are different revenue streams starting with Property Tax which is governed by the Municipal Property Rates Act which indicates that all property shall be valued and rated and that ratings should be done in an equitable way, in terms of the categories that people pay for, for Property Tax and that this should be used for purposes of providing services.
The other services, however, are in many ways trading services. The provision of water is on the basis of water supplied, utilised and therefore billing happens in line with consumption. The same applies
to electricity. In essence when we deal with trade and services in particular, we need to acknowledge that this has to do with the municipalities' ability to procure the water from the water board and to be able to sell such to the consumer. Therefore, we need to look at it as a trading service and we cannot therefore contend that it constitutes over taxation because it is essence a trading service provided by the municipality. That not withstanding, it is important to indicate that the department is currently working with various municipalities in terms of the simplified revenue plan to ensure that we are able to collect revenue so that there is equity in relation to payment but also in the relation to expenditure by the municipality. Thank you very much.