Chairperson, just to liven up the debate a little, let us recall what I have said previously from this podium. Seeing as we are throwing billions of rand around here, how long would you take to spend a billion rand if you were to spend R1 per second? It would take you 31 years! So, as we talk about the R288 billion which is going up to R291 billion, let us bear in mind that next year our national Budget is going to reach a trillion rand, which will take you 31 000 years to spend at R1 per second - 31 000 years! This is very interesting and it shows you the amount of money that we are throwing around and spending.
We on the Standing Committee on Finance have expressed our concerns about the spiralling public sector wage bill. A large part of the amount being discussed here today in the Division of Revenue Amendment Bill is the R3,24 billion that is being allocated, in addition to the provincial equitable share, to providing for higher remuneration increases than what was provided for in the main Budget, which Deputy Minister Mulder referred to earlier.
The public wage was up from 31% to 42% of government revenue. Clearly this is unsustainable, not only in the short term but in the medium and long term. We are loaning money to fund current account expenditure while not spending on capital expenditure. This is something on which we as the ACDP are in full agreement with the National Treasury when it said, "Over the medium term, salary increases for all role players need to be given careful attention."
We note that the proposed budget framework provides a 5% cost of living adjustment. We would urge the government to look at this and not to accede to higher-than-budgeted salary increases next year. We saw that they were previously budgeted at 5,5%, they but went up to 6,8%. We do not want to come again next year to readjust the Division of Revenue Amendment Bill to pay for additional, higher than forecast public sector wage increases. The ACDP will support this Bill.