South Africa on Thursday scrapped plans to raise value-added tax after a political backlash that threatened the stability of the ruling coalition government. The proposal to raise VAT by 1 percentage point over two years,

With National Treasury announcing the reversal of the contentious 0.5 percentage points VAT hike on Thursday (24 April), legal experts have warned this doesn’t mean it’s a done deal.

Keeping value added tax (VAT) at 15% will benefit consumers and farmers. The National Treasury announced on the morning of 24 April that the VAT rate will not be increased by 0,5% as proposed in the budget in March,