Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene.
The taxman collected R1.216-trillion in revenue for the 2017/18 financial year, this is R0.7-billion or 0.06% lower than the revenue target set by national treasury of R1.217-trillion.
Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene made the announcement at a briefing on the preliminary results at SARS headquarters in Pretoria on Tuesday morning. Acting Commissioner Mark Kingon also delivered an address.
According to SARS, R1.451-trillion was collected, refunds amounted to R234.3-billion bringing the net figure to R1.216-trillion. Revenue represents growth of 6.3% or R72.4billionn.
“Well done to SARS and the people of South Africa who made this possible,” Nene said of the results. “This revenue injection represents money that comes from ordinary, hard-working South Africans and demonstrates our resilience as a nation to overcome obstacles and challenges, and our commitment to protect and deepen our democracy.”
Nene explained that the revenue collection is driven by the state of the economy, fiscal policy, administrative efficiency and tax morality which determines taxpayer compliance. The performance of any tax administration is driven by consumer confidence, tax morality and the credibility of the tax administration, he said.
Between December 2017 and February 2018 monthly revenue growth rates accelerated between 9.5% and 15.5%.
The strengthening of the growth rate is attributed to an improvement in business confidence to levels last seen in 2015, resulting in improved profit outlook and hence provisional payments, said Nene.
“The stronger currency towards the latter part of 2017 assisted companies with imports, which benefitted our trade taxes,” he added. – News24