Persistent power cuts cost the South African Revenue Service (Sars) up to R60 billion in tax.
This was revealed in Parliament on Wednesday while Sars commissioner Edward Kieswetter and other Sars officials briefed Parliament on the entity’s annual performance plan.
The team faced several gruelling questions from members of Parliament (MPs) on how the energy crisis affected its operations and revenue collections.
MPs commended Sars for managing a 7.8% increase in net revenue collection totalling R1.6 trillion.
But they also questioned the entity about how load shedding affected revenue and companies.
“How does load shedding, the energy crisis, affect your tax base in numbers, firstly in terms of the numbers of the tax base and in revenue terms?” United Democratic Movement (UDM) MP Nqabayomzi Kwankwa asked.
Chief revenue officer (CRO) Johnstone Makhubu said that consistent power cuts were costing billions.
“When the commissioner spoke earlier on, he indicated that we estimate about R60 billion that has been lost due to load shedding in 2022. But again, there’s an immediate effect and a lag effect. The lag effect is most likely felt in corporate income taxes.”
Sars also told Parliament that it paid R381 billion in refunds to taxpayers for the first time ever, which is almost 5% of the GDP.
-EWN
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