Finance Minister Trevor Manuel told Parliament's finance and budget committees on Thursday that the finer details of the programme were still being worked out between the National Treasury and trade and industry.
A "revamped" National Empowerment Fund (NEF) was expected to be the vehicle to spearhead the project, he said during a briefing on the 2003/04 Budget.
Delivering the Budget on Wednesday, Manuel announced that the government planned to set aside R10-billion over the next five years to boost BEE. The funds will be used to support the funding of new ventures and business expansions that meet empowerment criteria.
The programme is to be partly funded from charges linked to an amnesty on money returning to South Africa that had been stashed offshore illegally in the past.
On Thursday, National Treasury director-general Maria Ramos told the committees there was "some space" in the budgeted contingency reserve to finance the proposal, while there were still funds within the NEF that could also be utilised.
On inflation, Manuel said he was not concerned about the impact tax cuts and increased spending, announced in the Budget, could have on inflation.
"I don't see a risk of demand-push inflation," he told the committee.
The sharp rise in prices last year that saw interest rates rise by 400 basis points were the product of international rather than domestic issues.
"(The inflation) was not because of a contradiction between fiscal and monetary policy," Manuel said.
The 2003/04 Budget sees personal income tax cuts of R13,3-billion, and real spending increases of 4,5 percent over the next three years - Sapa.
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