The Democratic Alliance (DA) on Wednesday accused ActionSA and Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) of betraying South Africans by supporting what it calls the African National Congress's (ANC’s) “anti-growth, anti-poor VAT hike”, but ActionSA defended the move arguing that amending the 2025 Fiscal Framework and Revenue Proposals would result in delays, instability, and would allow a 1% VAT increase, over two years, to take effect on May 1.

Parliament's vote on the 2025 Fiscal Framework and Revenue Proposals is being debated in the National Assembly.

On Tuesday, ActionSA, the IFP, and the ANC, voted for a report that supported the fiscal framework including the VAT increase, instead of amending or withdrawing the report, as suggested by the DA and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF).

DA spokesperson on Finance Dr Mark Burke said ActionSA and the IFP either thought they were changing the Budget with their “flimsy pointless recommendations” and didn’t come to that committee with even a basic understanding of the Money Bills Act.

“…or these parties knew exactly what they were doing and were trying to make South Africans the victims. Selling us out by voting through an ANC VAT budget with flimsy recommendations,” he said.

ActionSA’s support of the framework was for “five minutes of media coverage or promises of future cabinet positions”, he added.

“Certainly not to stop taxes, because those tax increases are still very much baked into this fiscal framework that ActionSA chose not to amend,” he said.

The DA believes that the report that does not amend the fiscal framework, supports a “bad budget, the very same bad VAT budget tabled on March 12”.

“Now, sure, supporters of this April Fools day farce are very quick to point out that this report makes recommendations to relook at the tax increases. Madam Speaker, the archives are full of reports with ignored recommendations.

“Ask the auditor general how delinquent ANC local governments across the country respond to their recommendations year after failed year,” Burke said.

He noted that if it is forced to exit the Government of National Unity (GNU) for driving a growth and jobs agenda, “then so be it”.

Meanwhile, ActionSA defended its position by arguing that it chose to recommend changes to the Fiscal Framework rather than amend it outright because an amendment would have required the Minister of Finance to redo the entire Budget process.

“This would have caused delays, instability, and—critically—allowed the VAT increase to take effect on 1 May, the very outcome we are fighting against. Instead, our approach allows for the necessary time to table alternative revenue proposals, and—most importantly—gazette the postponement of the VAT increase, without triggering a full Budget revision,” explained ActionSA Parliamentary leader Athol Trollip.

He believes that ActionSA’s alternative keeps the Fiscal Framework intact while preventing fiscal instability and procedural deadlock.

While the ruling coalition failed to agree on a solution, he said ActionSA was “taking the lead” in protecting South Africans from unfair tax hikes.

“We are not just rejecting VAT and tax hikes—we are providing a practical, revenue-generating alternative,” he argued.

He said the party’s solution focused on strengthening South African Revenue Service’s (Sars’) ability to collect revenue efficiently, broadening the tax base, and cracking down on illicit trade.

The party proposed that Sars’ Revenue Recovery Programme, if funded with just R2-billion a year, could recover between R20-billion and R50-billion each year, according to Sars’ own estimates.

The additional R1.5-billion allocated to Sars in 2025/26 (and R4-billion over two years) will significantly improve Sars' capacity to boost revenue collection, he laid out.

“Sars’ own figures prove the effectiveness of targeted fiscal interventions: As per Sars’ press statement yesterday, net revenue collection for the year was R8.8-billion higher than the revised estimate, and R114-billion more than the previous year. This underscores the fact that a well-funded SARS can generate additional revenue without burdening taxpayers,” said Trollip.