Johannesburg – The South African Revenue Service has
collected more than R1 trillion in tax.
However, at a press conference in Pretoria on Monday, the
service said this was only R300 000 above its revised estimate, as
announced in the February 22 Budget.
Last February,
National Treasury had anticipated total tax revenue of R1.175 billion, which
was revised down in October during the Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement and again
to R1.144 now. “This is the largest tax revenue shortfall relative to budgeted
estimates since 2009/10,” National Treasury said in February.
The amount of tax
collected fell short in three main areas and personal income tax, value-added
tax (VAT) and customs duties are down by an estimated R15.2 billion, R11.3
billion and R6.5 billion respectively relative to the 2016 Budget estimate.
This, National
Treasury said, was a result of lower wage increases and bonuses, slow job
creation and higher than expected VAT refunds.
Corporate income
tax collection was expected to exceed 2016 Budget estimates.
On Monday, SARS
said it had collected, in gross terms, R1.367 trillion. This means that
the preliminary
outcome for the 2016/17 financial year, net of refunds of R222.4 billion, is R1.144
trillion.
It noted, for the 2016/17 financial year, net revenue grew by 7
percent, which contrasted with a growth in refunds of 9.5 percent year on year.
However, the results will be subject to detailed financial
reconciliation which, in the past, was of the order of about R150 million, which
it describes as “an insignificant 0.01 percent potential adjustment to the
final outcome either way”.
SARS says its “extra-ordinary achievement” during tough times,
with the economy having grown a mere 0.3 percent last year, was “made possible
by the mobilisation of the entire SARS resource base.
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This, it says, resulted in monthly revenue growing by above 15 percent
in March. “This lifted overall growth, dragged down by very poor performances
of Import taxes and Corporate Income Tax from small and medium companies in
February, from 6 percent to the required 7 percent by the end of March 2017.”
Revenue performance of
2016/17 was characterised by key shifts in the revenue portfolio, SARS says.
Personal Income
Tax, for long being the mainstay of revenue, declined from levels exceeding 12
percent to below 9 percent. This was precipitated by lower than usual wage
settlements, subdued bonus payments as well as job shedding, it says.
Import taxes were
adversely stunted by declining import levels of goods that attracted Value
Added Tax (VAT) and Duties.
Import VAT
declined by 1.3 percent and Customs Duties by 1.2 percent. Dividends Tax more
than doubled in March 2017 as many companies forestalled rate changes announced
in the February 2017 Budget, yielding a surplus of R4.4 billion against the
March 2017 estimate for this tax.
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