Deputy Speaker, I will try to be level-headed. The ID recognises the enormous economic challenges facing us as a country and the constraints that the Minister of Finance has to contend with in drawing up this fiscal framework. Coupled with the ever-persistent challenges of poverty, unemployment and inequality is the added problem of a global economy that is struggling to recover from a major recession. In addition, over the past decade we as a country have underinvested in our built infrastructure to the tune of R1,5 trillion, which we now urgently have to find ways of funding.
All of these factors require a massive stimulatory response from the Treasury, which will necessarily involve us running a large budget deficit. As the ID, we can therefore accept the need for a large deficit at this time, but only if the money is spent on investments that will yield a far higher growth rate in the future.
This is where we differ from the finance Minister, for we believe that some of the budget allocations will not yield the high growth rates or job creation levels that we require. In particular, we have a problem with the over R1 billion that is being allocated to the National Youth Development Agency, NYDA, over the next three years. We believe the only employment they will activate is for their elite in the ANC Youth League.
Finally, the ID is also opposed to the increase in fuel levies, as we believe it will have a massive inflationary effect on our economy, particularly given the fact that global food and oil prices look set to continue rising to crippling levels. To our mind, oil seems to operate as the trip switch for the global economy and we have to be alive to the threat of a U$150 price level plunging the world into a double-dip recession.
The only way around this is to ultimately wean our economy off hydrocarbons, but we cannot do that with the paltry amount of resources that have been allocated in this Budget to the green economy. It is time for our resources to follow the rhetoric in this regard. I thank you. [Applause.]