Budget 2023: The Universal Service and Access Agency of SA (USAASA) will cease to exist, as government plans to have it “disestablished by the end of 2023/24”.
The legislative process to complete this is expected to conclude by 2025/26, based on National Treasury’s 2023 Estimates of National Expenditure (ENE) document.
The ENE forms part of the documents handed out to coincide with finance minister Enoch Godongwana’s National Budget Speech presented today.
USAASA is an entity of the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies. It was established to promote universal service and access to electronic communications and broadcasting services.
The ENE document reveals the agency’s disestablishment is part of recommendations emanating from the 2016 National Integrated ICT Policy White Paper.
Furthermore, it’s intended to streamline roles and responsibilities of different entities and increase efficiency to support universal service and access, it states.
“The agency will, however, continue to manage the Universal Service and Access Fund [USAF] until it is disestablished to ensure disbursed funds reach the intended deserving beneficiaries.”
According to the ENE, USAASA expenditure is expected to decrease at a rate of 77.4%, from R385.3 million in 2022/23, to R86.9 million in 2023/24.
“This is due to one‐off funding in previous years for the broadcasting digital migration project earmarked for the South African Post Office to cover distribution costs. Over the medium-term, expenditure is expected to decrease to R94.8 million in 2025/26. The agency is set to derive its total budget through transfers from the department.”
For USAF, its mandate is to subsidise ICT equipment and services, and electronic communications and broadcasting networks for needy people in underserviced areas. The fund is managed by USAASA.
“The fund expects to conclude the broadcasting digital migration project, which will enable analogue broadcasting to be switched off in the remaining districts to release much‐needed spectrum, and provide aftermarket support to all qualifying beneficiaries who may encounter problems with their installed digital set‐top boxes.”
In the case of USAF, its expenditure is set to also decrease at a rate of 97.7%, from R2.9 billion in 2022/23, to R67.4 million in 2023/24, it is revealed.
“This is due to the retention of funds from previous financial years, with the approval of National Treasury in terms of section 53(3) of the Public Finance Management Act (1999), which were mostly used for activities related to broadcasting digital migration in 2022/23. The fund derives all its revenue through transfers from the department.”
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