Budlender, D., 2000, 'An introduction to the Fifth Women's Budget', in Parliamentary Committee on the Quality of Life and Status of Women, Community Agency for Social Enquiry (CASE), and Idasa, 2000, Women's Budget Series: 2000 issue, Cape Town: Parliamentary Committee on the Quality of Life and Status of Women, CASE, and Idasa

Where are the boundaries of the developing field of gender budget analysis? In the fifth year of the South African Women's Budget Initiative, a folder of three papers on revenue (taxation, local government, and customs and excise) and one paper on inter-governmental health policy-making and budgeting, push the boundaries and debates forward. This introductory paper answers the question 'why look at revenue?'. Despite the fact that governments start with estimating total revenue before making spending decisions, the main focus of international budget work (including from a gender perspective) to date has been on expenditure. Analysis of revenue is more difficult and often more politically sensitive, partly because of the need to tackle budget deficits. There are also two technical obstacles to revenue work. One is that revenue is often more difficult to attribute to a gendered individual than expenditure, which is hard enough. The other is that differences between developed and developing countries are greater in relation to revenue issues than in relation to expenditure. One important role of revenue analysis is in the questioning of decentralisation processes now happening in many developing countries, processes that are often accompanied by the principle that the user pays for services. See the summaries below of the three revenue papers. The final paper, on health service-delivery, can be found under Africa in the Case Studies section.

See also the popular version of the Fifth Women's Budget - Hurt, K. and Budlender, D. (eds), 2001, Money Matters Three: Women and Government Revenue, Cape Town: The Institute for Democracy in South Africa (Idasa) under the Popular Education Materials section.

How can municipalities address their financial difficulties yet not overburden the poor, particularly poor women? This paper, one of a collection of four papers from the fifth year of the Women's Budget Initiative in South Africa, stresses that local government must have enough money to deliver what they are meant to deliver. It focuses on revenue raised by municipalities directly from their citizens (i.e. user charges and tariffs for services, and rates) and their impact on women and men. Firstly the paper highlights the non-monetary expenses incurred by women in their reproductive duties (sometimes called a "reproduction tax") which can be directly affected by whether and what services are provided by local government, and how much they might cost. A "poverty alleviation toolbox" of four tools is outlined to alleviate the impact of revenue-raising on the poor, and particularly poor women. Cross-subsidisation can, for example, shift income from rates and electricity to help fund health services from which women might particularly benefit. Targeting subsidies or rebates (in the case of property rates) according to gender, race, or income can reduce the burden on those least able to pay. However, very few municipalities have "indigence" policies which allow low-income households (for example, earning less than R800 per month) to pay less for services. Finally, the setting of a stepped tariff links how much you pay to how much you use of a service, for example how many litres of water you consume. Concerns remain on how some municipalities recover money they are owed by citizens, such as by evictions or service cut-offs. It is recommended that indigence policies and people-friendly credit collection systems would help counteract this.

Goldman, T., 2000, 'Customs and excise', in Parliamentary Committee on the Quality of Life and Status of Women, CASE, and Idasa, Women's Budget Series: 2000 issue, Cape Town: Parliamentary Committee on the Quality of Life and Status of Women, CASE, and Idasa

How have women fared under trade liberalisation as workers, traders and consumers? This paper from the fifth year of the Women's Budget Initiative in South Africa, tackles customs and excise as a new area of gender budget analysis. It argues that South African women suffer from trade liberalisation (i.e. tariff reduction and free trade agreements) as labour-intensive industries where women are concentrated undergo contraction. Such important employers of women include the clothing industry, fruit farming, and fruit and vegetable canning which are finding it hard to adjust to increased international competition. Women tend to be the first to lose their jobs. Some gains from export growth of fruit (grapes, apples and pears) and wine are expected, but for women the opportunities are likely to be seasonal and casual. As consumers, reductions of tariffs on basic goods (such as imported medicines) might help poor women managing tight household budgets but may cost jobs. As traders, women's choice of products and pricing and what they have to compete with in terms of both price and quality is affected by customs and excise decisions. Recommendations made include: developing the capacity of the Department of Trade and Industry to analyse the impact of trade agreements particularly from a gender perspective; taking anti-dumping measures in sectors that are important employers of women; and the introduction of a social clause covering non-discrimination on the grounds of gender and pay equity in all trade agreements.

Himmelweit, S., 2002, 'Making visible the hidden economy: the case for gender-impact analysis of economic policy', Feminist Economics Vol 8 No 1: 49-70

This article is available in full with the kind permission of Taylor & Francis Ltd:
(For subscribing to Feminist Economics see: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/routledge/13545701.html)

Although economic policy is targeted at the paid economy, it has unintended yet significant impacts on the unpaid care economy. This paper explores the UK's Working Families Tax Credit (WFTC) which aims to help people make the transition from welfare to paid work. The WFTC has raised the income of many families in which women predominate, since 52 per cent of the recipients of WFTC are lone parents and, of these, 98 percent are mothers. However, a disadvantage has been that it provides no additional payment if there are two earners in the family, which acts as an employment disincentive to second earners who are generally women. This paper argues that a gender impact assessment could have improved the design of the policy and includes suggestions for criteria for evaluating economic policy which would enable assessment of effects on both paid and caring economies.

See BRIDGE's 'Gender and Budgets Overview Report' in this Cutting Edge Pack for details of how the WFTC has been divided into two tax credits - the Employment Tax Credit and the Integrated Child Credit. This followed arguments by the Women's Budget Group that employment incentives needed to be targeted at men and women equally, and that sharing of care roles between men and women should be encouraged.

Smith, T., 2000, 'Women and tax in South Africa', in Parliamentary Committee on the Quality of Life and Status of Women, CASE and Idasa, 2000, Women's Budget Series: 2000 issue, Cape Town: Parliamentary Committee on the Quality of Life and Status of Women, CASE, and Idasa

What is the tax toll on women? Can taxation policy reduce income and wealth inequalities between women and men in South Africa? This paper, one of a collection of four papers from the fifth year of the Women's Budget Initiative, argues that the way in which the tax burden is distributed affects the welfare of individuals and households. It influences disposable (available) income, people's spending, savings, and investment choices, private sector activity, and job creation. Since 1994 changes have been made to South Africa's taxation policy which had traditionally discriminated against women both through its formal discrimination on gender and marital status, and over reliance on indirect taxes which disproportionately impact on the poor. Yet significant discrimination against women remains in certain types of indirect taxation and in the structuring of tax deductions and allowances. If taxation policy is to be an effective tool for redressing gender inequalities, the government revenue services must make gender central to their policy-making and revenue reviews. The collection of gender-disaggregated information to gain a clearer understanding of the differential impact of taxation on women and men is a priority. Specific recommendations include restructuring the personal income tax system to make it more progressive (i.e. more favourable to those with less income), moving from separate taxation of spouses to joint taxation, extending the zero-rating to more basic goods and services, and educating the public on their rights as taxpayers.

Vandemoortele, J., 2002, 'Shortcuts to Public Service Provision? User Fees and Narrow Targeting', in K. Judd (ed.), Gender Budget Initiatives: Strategies, Concepts and Experiences - Papers from a High Level International Conference 'Strengthening Economic and Financial Governance Through Gender Responsive Budgeting, Brussels, 16-18 October 2001, New York: United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Commonwealth Secretariat

How do different methods of collecting and spending government finances affect men and women differently? Due to inadequate social budgets, different methods such as charging for services (user fees) and narrow targeting (more specific designation of funds) are being used. However, these have different implications for women and the poor. User fees such as water, health and education have only a limited use in supplementing social budgets and they often restrict women and poor people's utilisation of services. Women are more likely to support the charging of water fees since they bear the burden of collecting water. However, men's control over household resources means that they may well be unlikely to spend money in this area. Fees are therefore often paid by women and yet assessment of affordability is targeted at the household (male) income. In the case of health and education, user fees often exacerbate gender inequalities in treatment and attendance respectively. The paper also discusses how narrow targeting, which is often proposed to cut costs, does not help ensure universal access to services due to either mis-targeting or the cost of administration.

Wanyaka, S., (with Sulait, K. and K. Francis), 2003, 'Report on gender budget analysis of taxation in Uganda, focusing on Central Government taxation carried out by Uganda Revenue Authority (URA)', Kampala: Forum for Women in Democracy (FOWODE)

While most work on gender-sensitive budgets focuses on expenditure, this FOWODE study in Uganda demonstrates the importance of a gendered tax policy impact assessment and evaluation. Any examination of government revenue tends to be difficult and often more politically sensitive than a gender analysis of expenditure. A quantitative and qualitative gender analysis is undertaken of the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA), including of its policy on tax incentives and tax reforms, and of its organisation and management. The present tax structure in Uganda is not based on equity or efficiency considerations. An area for fiscal attention is indirect taxes which particularly have an impact on poor women and men. This includes value-added taxes (VAT) on local and imported goods. Taxes on alcohol and tobacco, for example, tend to affect men more as they are likely to drink and smoke more. However, higher taxation on these goods may mean less money is available to women and the household generally. With women generally providing unpaid reproductive and care services to the economy - sometimes called a 'reproduction tax' - women should receive tax exemption from goods mainly used by them such as sanitary ware, power for cooking, food and toiletries. The study concludes that an understanding of who the stakeholders are in tax policy formulation and implementation is crucial for the much needed rallying of support for gender-sensitive taxation.

FOWODE has also published a four-page summary of this revenue report

See also the Simel Eşim paper and the Barnett and Grown paper in section 3.3 for an overview of revenue issues.