Maseru, Feb. 20 — The Minister of Finance and Development Planning Dr. Rets’elisitsoe Matlanyane has on Thursday in the National Assembly rectified a typing error regarding the income tax rate.
This, she said after she stood on point of order requesting to rectify that error which is on paragraph 49 of the budget speech.
Dr. Matlanyane said the income rate written is 35 percent whereas the correct one is 30 percent.
Responding on this matter, the Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly Mrs. Ts’epang Mosena guided the Minister to also report this rectification to the responsible Committee, saying she believed Dr. Matlanyane also did that for the purposes of Hanzard.
The Agency has learned that the error caused a lot of confusion among taxpayers especially civil servants, as their salaries were increased by 2 percent and believed with the tax increase of 35 percent, their salaries would automatically be decreased by 3 percent.
Meanwhile, in her budget speech, Dr. Matlanyane indicated that to support low income earners during these trying times, the government shall increase minimum threshold for income tax to M6,170.00 with an applicable rate of 20 percent, while a rate of 30 percent shall apply for income brackets above M6,170.
In addition, tax credit for each individual income earner is increased from M920.00 to M970.00 per month.
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