Disaster Management Tax Bills: Committee Reports

Meeting report

Report of the Select Committee on Finance on the Disaster Management Tax Relief Bill [B11B - 2020]
Mr D Ryder (DA, Gauteng) said the wording in the last sentence on item two, on tax deduction donations, did not make sense.

The Chairperson agreed and said a correction would be made.

The Chairperson then spoke on the processing of the Bill and raised the issue of some confusion in this regard. He said that on 17 August, he had sent out a message that the NA Committee was meeting to vote on the Bill and these were not joint Committee meetings. NCOP Members were free to attend the meeting as observers. The Bill was not an s76 Bill and the NCOP had to review the decisions taken by the NA Committee on the Bill independently of the NA and the NCOP would therefore meet on its own after the NA had processed the Bill.

The Chairperson said he had discussed the issue with NCOP House Chairperson, Mr J Nyambi, and Adv Frank Jenkins, Senior Parliamentary Legal Advisor, who had both agreed that this view was correct. The confusion arose because the NCOP was processing an s75 Bill jointly with the NA, which could not be done.

The Chairperson then moved on to speak about the levy for SETAs and how effective SETAs were and read out item 5.1 welcoming the expansion of the age of eligibility criteria and amounts claimable and the streamlined special tax dispensation to assist with Covid-19 disaster relief, the increase of tax deductible donations and the Skills Development Levy (SDL) holiday.

He continued and read out item 5.2 regarding the Committee’s concern on the financial implications and consequences of this on the SETAs given the critical role they played. The Committee believed that SETAs be held to more rigorous account by relevant departments and Committees.

Mr Ryder said there was no need to go through the Report word for word.

Mr F Du Toit (FF+, North West) agreed with Mr Ryder.

The Chairperson said Members would vote on the Committee Report after they had gone through the Bill.

Report of the Select Committee on Finance on the Disaster Management Tax Relief Administration Bill [B12B - 2020] 
The Committee went through the Report.

Mr Franz Tomasek, Group Executive: Legislative R & D, South African Revenue Service (SARS), pointed out a technical correction in paragraph two.

The Chairperson agreed and said this would be corrected.

Mr Tomasek then pointed out further technical corrections.

The Chairperson agreed and said these would also be corrected.
Disaster Management Tax Relief Bill [B11B - 2020]
The Committee went through the Bill clause by clause.

The Bill was adopted.
Disaster Management Tax Relief Bill [B11B - 2020]
The Committee went through the Bill clause by clause.

The Bill was adopted.

Adoption of Committee Reports on Bills
The Committee then adopted its Reports on the Disaster Management Tax Relief Bill [B11B-2020] and Disaster Management Tax Relief Administration Bill [B12B-2020]                    

The Chairperson said the debate in the House would be on 17 September 2020.

The meeting adjourned