Godongwana says biggest chunk of department's R92bn budget to go to SARS

CAPE TOWN - Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana says the biggest chunk of his department’s R92 billion budget will go to the South African Revenue Service (SARS) to improve its effectiveness.

He said the increase in funding would go towards introducing a more tech-savvy approach, like e-invoicing for value-added tax (VAT). 

Godongwana tabled the National Treasury's budget in the National Assembly on Tuesday, where he listed his department’s priorities for the year.

But the Democratic Alliance (DA) wants guarantees that the money allocated to SARS won’t vanish and has called for greater transparency.

Godongwana said his department’s budget strikes a balance between the technical and the political.

Growing revenue continues to be a key component in Treasury's performance plan, and it has to allocate more funds to SARS.

“The largest component is for transfers to the South African Revenue Service (SARS), which is allocated R45.760 billion, to put it differently, 49.8% of the department’s budget.”

He said this was for operations and capital projects over the medium term, and would see an R8 billion increase.

“Part of this increase is to improve effectiveness in revenue collection by enhancing their ability to collect debt through better systems, increasing staff capacity and modernising their processes to establish e-invoicing for VAT instant payment systems and upgrades of customs infrastructure.”

Godongwana said to monitor progress and improve transparency, last week his department published monthly debt collection data from SARS for the very first time.

ALSO READ: National Assembly passes Division of Revenue Bill