Treasury has been forced to make painful revisions to the latest Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement, which updates government’s spending plans over the next three years, after its expectations in the February Budget turned out to be over-optimistic. Government now expects to earn almost R57-billion less in taxes than it previously forecast. Much lower commodity prices (due in part to a Chinese demand) hit mining profits, while loadshedding, Transnet’s woes and weak local growth also weighed on other tax income.