Response to Expert Panel Report on VAT

South African households are facing an affordability crisis. No amount of tinkering around the edges of our economic framework which has caused these problems is going to change this. Families cannot afford to eat properly.   Given this context, the scope and the timeline given by Treasury to the Expert Panel was too narrow and too short to deal sufficiently with the hardship caused to low income households by the increase of VAT from 14% to 15% and the magnitude of the food affordability crisis. The resultant recommendations bear this out.  [See media statement]