Govt to consider increasing value of social grants
Posted 8th July 2008 at 05:30 PM by NewsTracker
By Bathandwa Mbola
Pretoria – Government is to consider increasing the value of social grants for vulnerable groups due to the soaring food, oil and electricity prices.
"Government is looking at whether it could raise the social grants so that they could better keep up with the increased food and fuel prices,” said Health Department Director-General Thami Mseleku.
Briefing reporters on the progress made by the government’s Social Cluster on Tuesday, Mr Mseleku said the aim was not to increase the number of grants, but the amount.
He said government was implementing the zero rating of Value Added Tax (VAT) on some basic food stuff.
Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, who chaired the briefing, said poverty, hunger and malnutrition continued to present serious challenges which have an impact on people’s health.
"This problem is now lately compounded by steep fuel and food costs which make it increasingly difficult for our people to access even basic foodstuffs."
She said government was continuing with its Household Food Production Programme among other interventions as part of improving food security among the most food insecure and vulnerable communities.
“On the same breadth, government is also continuing with developing financing requirements for the farmer support programme focusing mainly on areas of large concentration of farm dwellers and those with high eviction rates.”
International stock levels of major staples are at long-run lows, which resulted in a serious shortage of major staples such as rice, wheat and maize.
The National Agricultural Marketing Council report released in February shows the price of maize increased by 33.2 percent between January 2007 and January 2008, and wheat and sunflower by 81percent.
Meanwhile, the leaders of the world's eight most industrialised countries on Tuesday warned that spiralling food prices and low supplies risked pushing millions more people back into poverty.
"We are deeply concerned that the steep rise in global food prices, coupled with availability problems in a number of developing countries, is threatening global food security," they said in a joint statement issued at the G8 Summit in Toyako, Japan.
"The negative impacts of this recent trend could push millions more back into poverty, rolling back progress made towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals," they added.
Noting that they had committed over $10 billion to support food aid and ways of increasing agricultural output in some of the world's poorest areas, the leaders called for additional help from other donors.
"We call on other donors to participate along with us in making commitments, including through the World Food Programme, to meet remaining immediate humanitarian needs and to provide access to seeds and fertilisers for the upcoming planting season," they said. – BuaNews
Pretoria – Government is to consider increasing the value of social grants for vulnerable groups due to the soaring food, oil and electricity prices.
"Government is looking at whether it could raise the social grants so that they could better keep up with the increased food and fuel prices,” said Health Department Director-General Thami Mseleku.
Briefing reporters on the progress made by the government’s Social Cluster on Tuesday, Mr Mseleku said the aim was not to increase the number of grants, but the amount.
He said government was implementing the zero rating of Value Added Tax (VAT) on some basic food stuff.
Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, who chaired the briefing, said poverty, hunger and malnutrition continued to present serious challenges which have an impact on people’s health.
"This problem is now lately compounded by steep fuel and food costs which make it increasingly difficult for our people to access even basic foodstuffs."
She said government was continuing with its Household Food Production Programme among other interventions as part of improving food security among the most food insecure and vulnerable communities.
“On the same breadth, government is also continuing with developing financing requirements for the farmer support programme focusing mainly on areas of large concentration of farm dwellers and those with high eviction rates.”
International stock levels of major staples are at long-run lows, which resulted in a serious shortage of major staples such as rice, wheat and maize.
The National Agricultural Marketing Council report released in February shows the price of maize increased by 33.2 percent between January 2007 and January 2008, and wheat and sunflower by 81percent.
Meanwhile, the leaders of the world's eight most industrialised countries on Tuesday warned that spiralling food prices and low supplies risked pushing millions more people back into poverty.
"We are deeply concerned that the steep rise in global food prices, coupled with availability problems in a number of developing countries, is threatening global food security," they said in a joint statement issued at the G8 Summit in Toyako, Japan.
"The negative impacts of this recent trend could push millions more back into poverty, rolling back progress made towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals," they added.
Noting that they had committed over $10 billion to support food aid and ways of increasing agricultural output in some of the world's poorest areas, the leaders called for additional help from other donors.
"We call on other donors to participate along with us in making commitments, including through the World Food Programme, to meet remaining immediate humanitarian needs and to provide access to seeds and fertilisers for the upcoming planting season," they said. – BuaNews
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