South Africa’s finance minister is expected to address concerns over dwindling tax revenues in his mid-term budget on Wednesday to reassure credit agencies of his commitment to a tighter purse, a Reuters poll found.

Malusi Gigaba is due to give his first review on finances on Oct. 25 and economists expect him to announce a revenue shortfall of R40 billion ($3.0 billion) for the year that began in March due to poor tax receipts.

“His first challenge will be to deal with the concerns surrounding the underperformance of tax collections in the first five months of the current fiscal year,” said Jeffrey Schultz, economist at BNP Paribas in Johannesburg.

Low tax receipts means the consolidated budget deficit will widen to 3.9% of GDP in 2017/18 from a February Treasury estimate of 3.4% for the previous fiscal year, according to medians in the poll of 15 economists taken this week.

source: https://www.moneyweb.co.za/news/economy/sas-poor-tax-revenues-to-delay-fiscal-consolidation/