The South African Revenue Service (SARS) could lose over R60 billion in taxes as a result of ongoing power outages.
This information was made public in Parliament on Wednesday at a briefing on the organisation’s yearly performance plan by SARS commissioner Edward Kieswetter and other SARS officials.
The team faced several gruelling questions from members of Parliament (MPs) on how the energy crisis affected its operations and revenue collections.
According to chief revenue officer (CRO) Johnstone Makhubu, frequent power outages cost the economy
billions of dollars.
“The commissioner mentioned previously that we believe that R60 billion will have been wasted in 2022 as a result of power shedding. But once more, there are two types of effects: instant and lag.
“Corporate income taxes are most likely where the lag effect manifests itself,” Makhubu said in a statement.
Additionally, SARS notified Parliament that for the first time ever, it paid R381 billion in refunds to taxpayers, or
roughly 5% of the GDP.