State firms, wages top risks to public finances – finmin
The biggest risks to South Africa‘s fiscal framework are state-owned firms and a high public sector wage bill, finance minister Tito Mboweni said on Thursday.
Read: SA to cut wage bill to help fund power utility bailout
Mboweni was speaking in parliamentary committee a day after unveiling a national budget that pledged $5 billion bailout for utility Eskom and forecast a reduction in public sector wages
Read: Wanted: Equity partners for Eskom Transmission
Eskom bailout could reach R150bn
A bailout for struggling South African state utility Eskom could reach as much as R150 billion ($10.79 billion) over 10 years, a senior National Treasury official told Reuters.
The Treasury said on Wednesday that it would provide Eskom with R69 billion of financial support over three years.
But Ian Stuart, a senior official at the budget office, told Reuters that Treasury had included in its national debt-to-GDP projections a further R23 billion of annual support to Eskom after that three-year period.
The final amount of support would depend on factors including economic growth, demand for electricity and the rate of reorganisation at Eskom, Stuart said.
Source: moneyweb.co.za
