Johannesburg - Tax revenue was expected to grow by 10.4 percent to almost R1 trillion in the 2014/15 tax season, Finance Minster Nhlanhla Nene said yesterday.
A total of R899.8 billion was collected last year after refunds.
Nene said the ability of the SA Revenue Service to collect revenue had been one of the cornerstones of South Africa’s 20-year democracy as it enabled the government to deliver public services.
While revenue was expected to increase, the economy was underperforming, Nene said.
Earlier, he told a Thomson Reuters breakfast meeting that the government would implement the National Development Plan (NDP).
He said the government was serious about the NDP and this was shown by the appointments of Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa as chairman of the National Planning Commission and Jeff Radebe as minister for planning, performance monitoring and evaluation.
“In the global scheme of things, South Africa is too small an economy to affect the direction of the changes to come, so understanding and anticipating the drivers of change internationally could make the difference between economic success and failure,” he said.
Pre-empting domestic and regional developments and dangers would affect outcomes. Choices made now would largely determine whether South Africa had a stronger economy and a more equitable society by 2030.
“We policymakers are struggling with difficult choices. South Africa has both a wide current account and budget deficit, even though our economy has not rebounded and consumers are pessimistic.”
Many factors added to uncertainty, including the outlook in China. The tapering of US quantitative easing was likely to continue to unsettle emerging markets. With unresolved debt problems in Europe, the bond market was skittish, with the possibility of spiking interest rates or abrupt changes in demand for South Africa’s debt.
Nene said: “The future suddenly looks very different for South Africa, in a world with higher interest rates, falling commodity prices and changing trade patterns.” – Additional reporting by Sapa