Sars commissioner Moyane denies meeting Guptas in Dubai
Moyane has been quizzed about his role in a R70m VAT refund paid to the Guptas, which Sars insists was above board.
FILE PICTURE: PRETORIA, SOUTH AFRICA – APRIL 03: South African Revenue Services (SARS) commissioner Tom Moyane during the revenue’s preliminary collection results announcement on April 03, 2017 in Pretoria, South Africa. (Photo by Gallo Images / Rapport / Deon Raath)
South African Revenue Services (Sars) commissioner Tom Moyane on Friday denied he met the Guptas in Dubai, saying he had only passed through the emirate en route to Portugal for Christmas.
Reports in the Business Day and Huffington Post SA this week said Moyane visited Dubai in December 2015 “at a critical time, when the Gupta family and members of its network were also in the country, negotiating key deals for the family”.
On Friday, Sars said it had “noted the media coverage which purports that Commissioner Tom Moyane met members of the Gupta family”.
While Sars confirmed that Moyane was in Dubai on December 23, 2015, the revenue service said its boss was in transit to spend Christmas in Portugal.
The revenue service, which indicates that on the return trip, the commissioner spent a week in Dubai, said Moyane “categorically states” that he has never met any member of the Gupta family in either his private or professional capacity.
“Sars can further confirm that he returned to Dubai on 29 December 2015 and returned to South Africa on the 8th of January 2016.”
Sars said it viewed “attempts to link the commissioner and/or Sars as an institution with the Gupta family or their associates, as malicious and reckless in the extreme”.
The revenue service called “on anyone with information to the contrary to provide such to Sars or any organ of state”.
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