SARS sees positive signs amid bleak budget

JOHANNESBURG - Positive signals are shining through from behind the country's bleak financial standing.

READ: Tax revenue expected to be over R1-trillion

SARS commissioner Edward Kieswetter says that rising revenue and refund payments

means more money in the hands of business and consumers.

He said, "gross revenue has grown year-on-year by 4.5-percent and in fact is a billion rand more than the pointed estimate."

"That is a better indication of what's actually happening in the economy. Secondly, our refund payments is higher than what we originally expected it and therein lies some good news but also gives you some indication of what's happening in the economy."

"The good news is it's money that we are getting back into the economy, back into the hands of individual households, back into the hands of companies and therefore it begins to churn and multiply activities in the economy. Important in that also is that refunds are higher because of the nature of the spending."

"Some of the spending reflects the inflationary effect of input costs, specifically we know that people are spending more money on diesel, on gas to provide alternative forms of electricity and energy but also there has been a significant amount of imports of solar panels and inverters for photo-voltaic generation." "Now if you take all of these combined then over the medium term we expect, together with the compliance efforts of SARS - which by the way has shown a 28-percent growth year-on-year and some of that is sustainable."

"So we have a slightly positive view to what you are saying that while in the short term the minister has to balance, has to make sure that at the net review side, how does he top that up with borrowings."

"But if we continue to focus on our efforts as SARS on ensuring compliance, making sure that the tax revenue that's due is collected as we are doing now, we believe over the medium term you'll begin to see that dividend coming through."