No more talks on border bill, says Gigaba
• Home affairs claims concerns about South African Revenue Service’s role at borders have been resolved
Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba has ruled out any further compromise with the Treasury on the Border Management Authority Bill, which is in the process of being finalised by Parliament’s portfolio committee on home affairs. His statement, however, contradicts that of Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa’s spokesman.
Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba has ruled out any further compromise with the Treasury on the Border Management Authority Bill that is in the process of being finalised by Parliament’s portfolio committee on home affairs.
His statement on Sunday that all concerns had been resolved conflicts with a statement by a spokesman from the office of Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa that there was still a window of opportunity for the Treasury to reserve a role for the South African Revenue Service (SARS) in customs and excise collection at ports of entry.
Treasury is concerned that the incorporation of the customs and excise function into the border management agency, which will fall under the Department of Home Affairs, will mean a fragmentation of the role played by SARS and will undermine revenue collection at a time when SARS is having difficulty in meeting its revenue targets.
Customs and excise is estimated to generate about 20% to 30% of the total R1.3-trillion tax revenue targeted for 2017-18.
Ramaphosa’s spokesman, Ronnie Mamoepa, said mediation between the departments through bilateral talks was continuing and it was too soon to speculate on the outcome.
“The matter continues to receive due attention and at the right moment, as and when the deputy president decides to communicate on the matter, he will do so,” said Mamoepa.
However, Gigaba noted at a media briefing on Sunday that a memorandum of understanding would be signed with the Treasury and SARS to ensure SARS representatives were at ports of entry to ensure full compliance with the law with regard to the collection of customs and excise duties paid at the ports of entry. These constitute about 10% of the total. The remaining 90% was paid via electronic transfer prior to the goods arriving.
Beyond this, no further compromise was necessary with the Treasury or any other department, Gigaba said.
He emphasised that the Treasury’s concerns about the border-management authority had been allayed in the bill.
However, early last week, Deputy Finance Minister Mcebisi Jonas wrote to home affairs portfolio committee chairman Lemias Mashile, asking that the committee establish certainty over SARS’s role in custom revenue-collection in the bill.
Jonas said bilateral meetings between home affairs and the Treasury had arrived at an agreement that the revenue collection and customs function of SARS would not be affected by the bill.
“This will ensure the customs value chain in SARS is not fragmented and that we do not risk the significant revenue collected from customs, excise and import value-added tax,” said Jonas. Treasury’s legal team believed home affairs’ proposed amendments to the bill did not reflect these points of consensus, wrote Jonas.