Denise Williams
THE South African Revenue Service (SARS) has attributed the loss of R16-billion in tax collection to last year's strikes, job lay-offs and lower salaries.
Briefing parliament yesterday following Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan's budget vote on Wednesday, SARS commissioner Oupa Magashule said due to limited growth in the third quarter of last year, only R1.2-billion had been collected.
"We also had a very bad second half in terms of corporate income tax driven by disruptions in the [mining] industry. In December alone we dropped R4.6-billion because of strikes and disruptions of supply of minerals and products in the mining industry," Gordhan said.
He said SARS had also observed a lower than expected revenue income as a result of 60000 job losses in senior management posts in the finance industry alone. Salary increases in the second half of last year also paled in comparison to the same period in 2011.
Gordhan said he also wanted SARS to deploy additional officials to ensure that more unethical and illegal business practices were uncovered.
