South African Budget Speech 2009 /2010 - Summary - Overview

Trevor Manuel announced the budget speech yesterday. With his "budget policy in the time of crisis", Trevor Manuel yesterday presented a brand new lease on life view of the economic crisis that's hit SA, moving away from his usual conservative views and opening up with some mind blowing numbers and figures to help stimulate our economy for 2009 / 2010.

So without further ado, i give you the summary / overview of the 2009/2010 budget speech. We will later today post the entire breakdown of the budget.

Tax breaks:

• tax payers will pay R13.6 billion less in income tax


• individuals under 65 who earn less than R54 200 per year will pay no tax


• those over 65 who earn less than R84 200 will pay no tax

Cough up for your cigarettes:

• a packet of cigarettes now cost 88 cents more


• the price of 750ml bottle of spirits goes up by R3, 21


• a 340ml can of beer now sets drinkers back a further 7 cents

Grants grow by R50:

• from April, the old-age, disability and care dependency grants will rise by R50 a month


• the retirement age for men currently at 63, is in the process of being reduced to 60 by 2010 to be on a par with that for women

Petrol pain

• fuel levies will go up on April 1 by 23 cents litre for petrol and 24 cents a litre for diesel


• the road accident fund levy will go up by 17.5 cents a litre


• the total increase will be just over 40 cents a litre

WHERE YOUR MONEY WILL GO

Justice and safety

• the fight against crime will receive a R5.4 billion boost this year, bringing total spending on courts, prisons and the police in 2009/2010 to R101 billion


• R3 billion will be spent on upgrading the it networks in the criminal justice system

Schools, roads and clinics

• R24.8 billion to provinces to increase services, mainly for health and education


• a further R4billion for the school nutrition programme


• R4.1 billion for provincial infrastructure especially, schools, roads and clinics

Service delivery and job creation

• free basic services; R600 million for municipalities to extend free basic services


• to create jobs and accommodate higher costs for skills and materials, spending on infrastructure will rise from an estimated R690 billion to R787 billion most of it for municipalities, provinces and parastatals

Better health care

• R932 million for the treatment and prevention of AIDS


• an extra R1.8 billion for three new vaccines to help reduce infant death


• R728 million for the hospital revitalisation programme - upgrades and construction of 31 hospitals nationwide

Supporting children

• from April, the foster care grant will increase to R680


• last month the R240 child support grant was extended to 15 year olds

2010 fifa world cup

• an extra R463 million to cover cost increases and pay for better project management of the stadiums being built


• R508 million in 2009/2010 and R210 million in 2010/2011 to help host cities prepare


• R11.9 billion in the next 3 years for public transport

Powering eskom

• R1 billion to manage power consumption


• eskoms R60 billion government loan to be repaid over 30 years. the power utility which got R10 billion in last years budget gets a further R30 billion in 2009/2010 and R20 billion in 2010/2011

Poverty relief

• the expanded public network programme which has run for four years will be extended by another 5 with the provision for jobs that will keep people employed for longer


• R1.8 billion for rural development over the next 3 years

Thanks Trevor

References: The Star & The Pretoria News

Bite the Dog - Dubai Mortgages and Rental Finance

So it seems like the guys in Dubai and the UAE are coming up with some exciting business options.

The rental market is making some great adjustments in the UAE and now you can get rental finance for 6 months, 1 year and you can pay your rent with one or two cheques, negotiate lower rents even if the landlord wants 12 cheques and manage your cash flow. Independent Finance are the guys offering this and its a real win as they have about 8 options available from interest based to fee based deals.

So be smart, get credit managed and control that crazy spending anduse your money wizely.

Mortgages, loan to value of up to 85%, interest rates of 7.8% and some great deals available now if you are shopping in the UAE.

February 2009 Interest Rate Drop!! woohoo

Ladies and gentleman... Some good news.




The interest rate has officially dropped 1%.

South Africa's new interest rate 14%.

Thanks Tito, you're a star!






Let the trend begin and let the houses start selling again!

The Independent Alt Ateam

Create your own FACEinHOLE

The ideal mortgage applicant

With Wizard Midrand's founding member now out in Dubai, coaching the banks and teaching mortgage companies the ins and outs of bond applications.... he's been really busy! In fact so busy that we haven't had an article from him in ages....

Well, we managed to get hold of Chris Green, and we asked him one simple question:

What are the criteria for an ideal mortgage applicant at the current time in Dubai?

There are two sides to each application for the ideal mortgage applicant to be relevant.

One being the person (Pre approval) and the second being the property (valuation). Once these two sides are dealt with separately and equally, they can then be joined at the hip to become the perfect mortgage applicant.

So starting with the individual, when a pre-approval is done by any finance house, the basis is on the credibility of the person wanting finance and the perceived credibility as seen by credit managers within the banks. With lenders appetite for risk being extremely sensitive and probably at an all time low, all of them are looking for “Mr. Perfect”.

So the profile of “Mr. Perfect” is typically a person who is buying to live in and not to let out. They are seen as a person who is here to stay. They must be a salaried individual or couple who earn a fairly reasonable income and that income must be deposited into the same bank account each month and they must have one hundred percent correlating salary pay slips.

The company or industry that they work for must not only be well established (at least 2 years in business) but ideally be seen as a non-risk industry because each lender has certain industry criteria that they feel is a risk to their lending policies. Credit cards, car finance and other finance vehicles must be paid on time every month and there must be no late payments whatsoever. That is sure guarantee to have a mortgage decline. Pay on time always.

Unusual deposits and bank transactions attract scrutiny by credit managers and explanations are needed for all of these. Letters of reference from other banks that the client deals with are always a bonus. It is also assists that when a person is from another country and can provide an up to date credit report from that country, it gives the credit managers a decent birds eye view and objective understanding of the prospective client.

Lastly having a fixed deposit with some money in at the lending bank is a definite bonus as this will affect your credit status to the good and you can earn about 6.5%.

The ideal property is one that is completed and registered in the lands department. Any variation of this, makes the second part so much more difficult as you are then totally reliant upon the lenders criteria of developers and their famous developers lists. Because of these lists the clients are often limited to who will provide finance and also what loan to value they will offer.

Once these two are married, you have the ideal mortgage and then to get the better rates it often comes down to client standing in the bank and how much deposit he can put down to bring his loan to value down.

Currently, we are seeing one in five applicants who are matching this criteria .