SARS ready to take responsibility of filling revenue gap in national budget

JOHANNESBURG – The South African Revenue Service (SARS) has indicated it’s ready to take up the responsibility of filling in the revenue gap in the national budget. 

On Wednesday, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana presented the budget but didn’t include an increase to value-added tax (VAT). 

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In his previous two failed budgets, Godongwana was adamant on raising VAT, saying it was the only way the government could continue to fund some of its critical programmes. 

Godongwana has shifted some of that revenue-raising responsibility to SARS, saying it will be able to raise an additional R20 to R50 billion a year due to increased staff capacity. 

SARS commissioner Edward Kieswetter said, “We don’t think of it as a lot of pressure, we think of it as a greater reliance on the SA Revenue Service in terms of its role to strengthen the fiscal integrity of South Africa.”

Kieswetter said the revenue service has an uncollected tax bill of R500 billion. 

“That includes penalties, interests, debt that will never be collected because it is not economical, some taxpayers are no longer in business, so we are saying even if through a focused effort we can collect a third of that, and it will be R150 billion or more.”

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