ECONOMIC FREEDOM FIGHTERS STATEMENT ON THE SOUTH AFRICAN REVENUE SERVICES PRESENTATION TO THE STANDING COMMITTEE ON FINANCE:
02 July 2014
On Wednesday, the 2nd of July 2014, the South African Revenue Services (SARS) made presentation of its strategic vision and plan to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance. As part of its presentation and typical of many South African public institutions, SARS claimed easy victories concerning its record on revenue collection, which is its primary mission.
At the end of the SARS Presentation, the Chairperson of the standing committee on finance attempted to coerce the committee to agree that SARS is overall doing very well and should be applauded for the work done so far. The Economic Freedom Fighters objected to this notion and narrative, because we strongly believe that SARS is dismally failing to collect maximum revenue from the private sector, in particular the producers of natural and mineral resources.
Here are the facts:
1) The overall contribution of private sector into the national budget is less than 20%, and this is despite that reality that South Africa boosts one of the biggest corporates in the African continent and the world in both the financial and resources sectors. Nominally, this means that the tax contribution of all businesses in South African is less than R200 billion, meaning that the whole corporate tax cannot afford to fund the entire education system of South Africa, which in the current financial year is allocated R220 billion.