JOHANNESBURG, April 1 (Xinhua) -- The South African Revenue Service (SARS) announced on Tuesday that it collected a net revenue of 1.855 trillion rand (about 100 billion U.S. dollars) during the 2024/2025 fiscal year.

This amount exceeded the revenue target by 8.8 billion rand, said SARS Commissioner Edward Kieswetter when making the announcement at a briefing in Pretoria, the administrative capital of South Africa.

By March 2025, SARS had collected a gross amount of 2.303 trillion rand, reflecting year-on-year growth of 6.9 percent, compared to the estimated nominal gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 5.4 percent for 2024/2025. "I am pleased that the 447.7 billion rand returned into the hands of taxpayers is good for the economy," Kieswetter said.

This revenue collection news came as Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana is seeking political support this week to pass the national budget for the current financial year in parliament. The budget includes a 0.5-percentage-point increase in value-added tax (VAT) as the country grapples with high debt levels.

Dawie Roodt, a senior economist at Efficient Group, a financial services company based in South Africa, told Xinhua that this is good news for the finance minister, suggesting that there is no need to hike VAT when the National Treasury would be getting much more money.

"This additional revenue is beneficial for the minister, as it provides him with some breathing room. He should reconsider the VAT, which has become a political squabble between the Democratic Alliance (DA) and the African National Congress," he said.

Roodt spoke highly of the revenue collector, which has collected over 23 trillion rand since 1994. "They are effective. They always surpass their target," he added.

The DA has said it would not support the passing of the budget, highlighting the proposed VAT increase.

Kieswetter told the briefing that the finance minister had set the revenue collector a target of 2.006 trillion rand for 2025/2026. The commissioner, however, expressed concern regarding fraud in the refund system.

Kieswetter further noted that during the period under review, SARS prevented the outflow of 146.7 billion rand in impermissible refunds. "I, however, remain deeply concerned about the ever-present threat of refund fraud and abuse of the system," he said.

Economic sectors such as finance, community, wholesale, and construction registered growth, which contributed 6.1 percent to the revenue. Enditem

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