THURSDAY, 1.30PM
THE South African taxman is set to target rogue businesses not registered for tax in a wide-ranging crackdown on thousands of firms. Tax commissioner Trevor van Heerden has told the parliamentary public accounts committee that more staff will be assigned to visit businesses individually, starting next month, to check whether they are registered for VAT or PAYE. Some staff will also cross-reference telephone directories with the tax register to snare tax offenders.
“We believe there can be astounding results because of this,” Van Heerden said. In a recent test run in the Western Cape, revenue service staff added more than 4 000 new businesses to the register, by moving from shop to shop and asking owners what taxes they were registered for. “We found that up to 50% of the businesses were not registered for any taxes at all,” said Van Heerden.
The tax drive to bring businesses into the tax net is the revenue service’s contribution to the Masakhane campaign, says van Heerden, and is part of a long overdue process to broaden the tax base. He said the 45 000 employers registered for tax purposes in Johannesburg are no reflection on the number of employers in the city. The revenue service claims it has exceeded its 1996-97 revenue collection target of R1,5-billion by R1,7-billion.
BUSINESS BRIEFS
GM TO RETURN TO SA
GENERAL Motors, which pulled out of South Africa 10 years ago, said this week it will resume selling its US-built vehicles in the Republic in 1998, starting with Cadillacs and Chevrolet sport-utility cars.
GENCOR THREATENS CLOSURES
MINING house Gencor has warned that uneconomic shafts at Evander Gold Mines will be closed unless new working practices are adopted. The company says such closures will result in the loss of 9 200 jobs, or more than half the workforce. It claims that agreement between management and employees over increasing gold ouput in the short term has not been reached, and that at current gold prices, some of its shafts are not viable using present work practices.
DE BEERS RUSSIAN DEAL
The long-delayed diamond trade agreement between De Beers and Russia may be formalised in talks which have begun in Moscow. De Beers is in talks with Almazy Rossi-Sakha, Russia’s diamond monopoly. Gary Ralfe, the head of De Beer’s Central Selling Organisation, is taking part in the talks.
CATERERS DISRUPT COSATU LUNCH
WORKERS allied to the Food and Allied Workers’ Union disrupted Cosatu’s sixth congress at the World Trade Centre in Johannesburg on Wednesday, demanding to know the whereabouts of their pension contributions, allegedly deducted from their wages since 1990. The action by catering staff at the centre delayed lunch at the congress.
RELIEF AT LOM DECISION
SOUTH African officials have welcomed recommendations to support SA joining the Lom Convention trade and co-operation treaty, despite reservations by three parliamentary committees over the status of certain goods produced in SA in terms of the convention.
NEW MOZ REFINERY
MOZAMBIQUE is to get a new $1,2-billion oil refinery, backed by South Arrica, Iran and Malaysia, according to the journal Mozambique Inview. The refinery is likely to be built near Maputo to take advantage of the South African market, and will produce 100 000 barrels a day. A feasibility study for the new refinery has already begun.