Parliament — The National Council of Provinces (NCOP) today, at its last hybrid plenary sitting for the year, considered the reports of the Select Committee on Appropriations on the Adjustments Appropriation Bill, the Proposed Division of Revenue, and the Conditional Grant Allocations to provinces and local government.

The Minister of Finance, Mr Enoch Godongwana, tabled the Adjustments Appropriation Bill when he presented the 2024 Medium Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) in the National Assembly on 30 October. The Bill seeks to effect adjustments to the appropriation of money from the National Revenue Fund for the state's requirements for the 2024/2025 financial year.

As one of its major objectives, this Bill recommends increases or decreases to allocations set out in the main Appropriation Act. These include shifts in the anticipated economic classification of the current spending. The Bill proposes allocations in the form of transfers and subsidies to the national, provincial and local government spheres, such as the provinces, municipalities, including public corporations, and other non-profit organisations, essentially for the payment of social grants, conditional grant allocations and transfers to several other associated socio-economic, infrastructural and educational public entities, among others.

The Bill's proposed adjustments for the 2024/25 financial year include an additional allocation of R2.1 billion to the Department of Defence, a proposed additional allocation of R2.6 billion in expenditure announced in the 2024 Budget but not allocated at that time and a proposed reduction of R242 million as declared unspent funds, among others.

Following deliberations in the House today, the House agreed to adopt the report and the Bill without amendments.