The South African Revenue Service (Sars) managed to collect R2-billion more than was expected in the 2010/11 financial year, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan announced on Friday.
Speaking at a press conference in Pretoria, he said Sars had collected R674,2-billion, which exceeded the target of R672,2-billion.
It was R75,6-billion or 12,6% more than collected in the previous fiscal year.
The collection figures indicated signs of economic recovery.
The revenue collection target for the 2011/12 financial year was R741,6-billion.
Gordhan paid tribute to the 15 000 Sars staff members, as well as the taxpaying public.
Referring to spending during 2010/11, he said government had spent R891-billion, which was an under-expenditure of R6-billion from the R897-billion that was budgeted.
The preliminary budget deficit was expected to be 5% of GDP.
More than one million jobs lost during the recent recession had limited the growth in revenue from personal income tax.
Below the target
While Sars personal income tax revenue had grown, it was 0,5% below the target.
Gordhan said that apart from job losses, wage increases had been 8,2% in 2010/11 compared to 9,3% in the previous year.
The collection of value added tax improved to R184,2-billion from R147,9-billion in the previous year.
Of the R674,2-billion collected, R226,3-billion came from individual taxpayers while companies paid R133,4-billion.
The revenue collected from the fuel levy earned Sars R35-billion which was 2,2% above target, and contributed 5,2% to the revenue collected by Sars.
This had increased from 4% in 2008/09 and 4,8% in 2009/10.
Sars commissioner Oupa Magashula said Sars had identified 2 800 people who earned R7-million or more a year or had assets in excess of R75-million.
However, only 360 people were in fact registered with Sars as being in this income category.
He said there were 50 people who owned luxury aircraft valued at more than R20-million, but earned an income of less than R1-million. — Sapa