The South African Revenue Service (SARS) has attributed the improvement in its revenue collection to a balance between renewed efforts to better its services and tax compliance.
On Thursday, SARS announced preliminary revenue results which showed a marked improvement in all major categories, including VAT, personal as well as corporate tax towards the end of the financial year.
SARS Commissioner Edward Kieswetter says the results show that that they have collected R1.25-trillion in the period ending March 2021. He says they have collected R38-billion more in tax revenue in a difficult economic environment.
“A year-on-year improvement of 26.8 percent on compliance cash collected and a reduced revenue leakage through refunds so in total to the compliance effort of SARS have resulted in an additional R158-billion in the year that we report.”
SARS briefing on preliminary outcomes of revenue collected:
In February, SARS said it is faced with the difficult task to re-prioritise its needs and rebuild its ability to improve its revenue collection.
The coronavirus pandemic, the associated lockdowns and the global slowdown severely affected SARS revenue collection.
In his budget statement in March, Finance Minister Tito Mboweni said South Africa would have the largest tax shortfall on record this year.
Budget 2021 delivered by Minister of Finance Tito Mboweni:
He said SARS expected to collect R1.2-trillion in taxes during 2020-2021, about R213-billion less than the 2020 budget expectations.
Kieswetter says they have to address serious challenges if they are to reverse their low revenue collection.
