CAPE TOWN - Treasury reportedly said that the South African Revenue Service (Sars) should take the blame for the revenue shortfall.
This comes after a briefing was held by National Treasury on the public inputs of Budget 2018 on Friday, reports Fin24.
Sars reportedly told Parliament that the tax revenue gap is a result of administration and governance issues.
However, Treasury’s deputy director general on tax and financial sector policy, Ismail Momoniat spoke about the tax gap and reportedly said that the trouble at Sars is also linked to governance issues.
Momoniat reportedly told the standing committee of finance (Scof) that there are governance issues at Sars.
He added that there should be checks and balances.
Parliamentary coordinator for Cosatu, Matthew Parks also said in response to Treasury’s submissions that government did not indicate a plan of action to mend the trouble at Sars.
Parks also agreed that the tax shortfall is not attributed to an economic crisis alone but also a result of state capture at Sars.
In other Sars news, the North Gauteng High Court has on Tuesday granted an order to give effect to a settlement agreement between the Sars and senior official, Vlok Symington.
In a statement on Tuesday, Sars said "the parties agreed, in good faith," to bring all legal and other related proceedings against each other, including disciplinary charges against Symington and a bodyguard named as Thabo Titi, to an end.
The court granted the order to effect the agreement on Friday.
Apparently, the abandoned legal actions arose from an incident that took place at the premises of SARS on 18 October 2016 in which Symington alleges he was held against his will by members of the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks) and Titi‚ as they allegedly attempted to take back documents sent to Symington in error.
"The events leading up to the incident, the incident itself and the disciplinary charges that arose from the incident against Mr Symington and Mr Titi have been reviewed by SARS and both parties have agreed that it would be in the best interest of all that these matters be settled," said the statement.
In granting the order, Justice Louw said he welcomed the fact that the parties have reached an amicable resolution without the need for further litigation.