SARS boss to boost business relations

Acting South African Revenue Service (SARS) commissioner Mark Kingon is looking to bolster relationships with business and ensure transparency while keeping his head down and avoiding political fire.

His first port of call is to find better ways to serve the public, strengthen SARS’s relationship with business by reducing the cost of compliance and focus on rebuilding a relationship with the tax ombud’s office, he said in an interview.

While he has big plans for SARS, Kingon can only stay in the position for 90 days until President Cyril Ramaphosa appoints a new commissioner.

Kingon has been with SARS since its inception but despite describing his time as a “rollercoaster,” he will not comment on whether the revenue service took a knock under Tom Moyane, who was suspended by Ramaphosa last week.

In a scathing letter Ramaphosa said he had “lost confidence in [Moyane’s] ability to lead SARS”. “We need to focus on the issue of revenue collection and trade facilitation at our border post … not focus on the peripheral issues,” Kingon said.

On Thursday, Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene drew a line in the sand for SARS executives who were thinking of bucking against attempts to rebuild the institution, saying that loyalty should be to the institution and not to individuals.

On April 3, SARS is expected to announce its revenue collection for 2017-18.

In the last year, SARS has reported revenue shortfalls on a scale not seen since the 2008 financial crisis. Under Moyane, there is an expected shortfall of R48.2bn for 2017-18.