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Provincial Budgets: 2015/16 Financial Year
Second Quarter Provincial Budgets and Expenditure Report

Summary

1. Published by the National Treasury in terms of Section 32 of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA), this provincial budget statement of receipts and payments covers spending for the second quarter and year to date (April to September 2015) of the 2015/16 financial year. The statement is available on the treasury website at  www.treasury.gov.za.

2. The information in the statement comes from the Section 40(4) PFMA reports submitted by heads of provincial departments to provincial treasuries, who, in turn, submitted the information to National Treasury. Queries on spending or budget numbers should therefore, in the first instance, be referred to the head of the relevant provincial department, and in the second instance to the head of the relevant provincial treasury. Queries on conditional grants may be referred to the head of the national department that administers the grant.

3. The budgeted figures for the second quarter are based on the 2015 Estimates  of Provincial Revenue and Expenditure which were presented to provincial legislatures during March 2015.

Overall Expenditure Trends – as at the end of the Second Quarter

4. In   aggregate,   provincial   spending   for   the   second   quarter   is   R235.5 billion,   or 48.7 per cent, of combined annual budgets of R483.6 billion. This represents an increase of 7.2 per cent or R15.8 billion on the expenditure of R219.6 billion for the same period last year.

5. Education expenditure for the second quarter is R96.9 billion or 49.1 per cent of the R197.6 billion combined education budgets, an increase of 4.5 per cent or R4.2 billion on the second quarter for the previous financial year. It remains the largest item on provincial budgets (40.9 per cent).

6. Health expenditure totalled R76.7 billion, or 50.8 per cent, of the R150.9 billion combined health budgets, and is the second largest item on provincial budgets (31.2 per cent). This represents an increase of 10.7 per cent or R7.4 billion on the second quarter for the 2014/15 financial year.

7. Social development expenditure for the second quarter is R8.1 billion or 48.5 per cent of the R16.6 billion combined social development budgets.

8. Personnel expenditure (compensation of  employees) is  in aggregate R143 billion or 49 per cent of the budgeted R291.7 billion as at 30 September 2015.

9. In aggregate, expenditure on combined capital  (payments  for  capital  assets)  is R15 billion   or   42.3 per cent   of   budgeted   R35.4 billion.   This   is   an   increase   of 10.5 per cent on expenditure for the same period of the 2014/15 financial year.

10. Capital expenditure by provincial education departments is R4.4 billion or 39.7 per cent of the budgeted R11.2 billion. This is R254.7 million or 6.1 per cent more than the expenditure for the second quarter for the previous financial year.

11. Expenditure on capital by provincial health departments is R3.7 billion or 48.3 per cent of the budgeted R7.6 billion, which is R854.8 million or 30.1 per cent more than the second quarter for 2014/15.

12. The biggest share of provincial capital budgets is for the public works, roads  and transport departments (37.3 per cent), whose expenditure is R5.6 billion or 42.3 per cent of the combined capital budget of R13.2 billion.

13. Provincial own revenue collected for the second quarter is R8.3 billion or 54 per cent of the budgeted own revenue of R15.3 billion. By the end of the second quarter, national government had transferred R191.3 billion of the equitable share and R45.4 billion of conditional grants to provinces.

14. A more detailed analysis of the expenditure outcome as at 30 September 2015 is set out in Annexure A.

Issued by National Treasury