R1.22 trillion collected by Sars for 2017/18 fiscal year

Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene said the South African Revenue Services (Sars) collected R1.216 trillion during the 2017/2018 financial year.

He was speaking during a media briefing this morning on the announcement of the preliminary outcomes of revenue collection for the 2017/2018 financial year.

He said these were preliminary results that would be subject to a final audit, adding the results were close to the 0.06% forecast estimate of R1.217 trillion announced by then Minister of Finance Malusi Gigaba when he tabled his speech budget earlier this year.

Nene said the preliminary results represented R72.4-billion growth, which is up by 6.3% from last year’s revenue.

“Under the circumstances, well done to Sars. This demonstrates a commitment to strengthen and deepen our democracy,” Nene said.

He said Sars collected a gross amount of R145.1 billion that was offset by refunds of R234.3 billion, resulting in net collections of R1.216 billion.

The R1.22 trillion of the revenue came from personal income tax, company tax and customs tax.

“Sars has stepped up its outreach. Majority of taxpayers continue to pay the taxes diligently. It is critical that taxpayers have full confidence that every cent tax will be spent well. Tax morality determines tax compliance,” Nene said.

The minister said on March 23, rating agency Moody’s reaffirmed the country’s long-term foreign and local currency debt rating at BAA3 and revised the economy’s outlook to stable from negative.

“This is largely based on decisive actions that our president and his administration has taken to place us on a better trajectory towards better growth,” Nene said.

“Until December 2017, revenue in aggregate grew by 6.2 percent year on year. For the period December to February 2018, revenue growth, on a month-on-month basis accelerated to between 9.5 percent and 15.5 percent,” he said.

He attributed stronger revenue growth towards the end of the financial year to an improvement in business confidence to levels last seen in 2015, resulting in improved profit outlook and hence provisional payments as well as stronger commodity prices, which buoyed company income tax from particularly the mining sector in December.

– additional reporting by African News Agency (ANA)

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