PARLIAMENT - The South African Post Office (Sapo) has been allocated a cash injection of R2.9 billion for its recapitalisation in National Treasury's medium-term budget policy statement tabled on Wednesday.
The post office is one of three state-owned entities receiving special appropriations. South African Airways will receive R5 billion and South African Airways Express R1.2 billion.
The post office this year took over the payments of social grants after the state's contract with Cash Payment Services came to an end and beneficiaries were still experiencing technical hitches with the new system.
Sapo relies on government guarantees of roughly R4 billion and reported a loss of R807 million in the last financial year.
Revenue shortfall
A revenue shortfall of R27.4 billion for the current financial year mainly due to the miscalculation of value-added tax (VAT) refunds owed by the state, the National Treasury said on Wednesday.
The National Treasury said a backlog of payment in VAT refunds by the South African Revenue Service and an underestimation of refunds due to taxpayers had skewed the estimation of revenue growth for the year.
"Net VAT collections account for about R20 billion of the in-year revenue shortfall. Two factors account for the revision in net VAT," it said.
"The VAT refund estimate has been revised upwards by R9 billion, and about R11 billion will be paid out to clear the backlog in the VAT credit book."