Moyane lashed over return of Makwakwa
Members of Parliament’s finance committee are not satisfied with the way South African Revenue Service commissioner Tom Moyane has dealt with the matter of SARS head of business and individual tax Jonas Makwakwa.
Members of Parliament’s finance committee are not satisfied with the way South African Revenue Service (SARS) commissioner Tom Moyane has dealt with the matter of SARS head of business and individual tax Jonas Makwakwa.
Makwakwa returned to work at SARS recently from a year of suspension as a result of a Financial Intelligence Centre report regarding suspicious deposits in his bank account.
The report identified 75 unusual and suspicious cash deposits, totalling R1.2m, into his account between March 2010 and January 2016.
Committee chairman Yunus Carrim said the way Moyane had managed the affair “left a lot to be desired”. Even if Makwakwa were innocent and Moyane had acted in good faith, “a person in your role should not be behaving like this”.
Carrim proposed that serious consideration be given to suspending Makwakwa pending the outcome of the Hawks’ criminal investigation. He said there was a strong perception — even among members of the ANC leadership — that Makwakwa was being protected because of what he knew.
DA deputy finance spokesman Alf Lees said it was not correct for Makwakwa to deal with tax matters at such a senior level while a criminal charge was hanging over him. Questions were also raised whether he had paid tax on his cash deposits.
Moyane said he had acted according to proper processes and after due consideration. He said the criminal investigation was not under his control.
The committee also interrogated the SARS team about widespread perceptions that the revenue service was withholding tax refunds in order to boost its revenue and meet targets.
A probe by the tax ombud found there had been delays in the payment of tax refunds.
“SARS is not about meeting the target using nefarious means,” Moyane said. He conceded there were problems with refunds, but said they were being tackled.
THERE IS A STRONG PERCEPTION THAT MAKWAKWA IS BEING PROTECTED BECAUSE OF WHAT HE KNOWS
SARS group executive for tax and customs Randall Carolissen said the overall revenue target for the year forecast refunds in the different taxes. A committee comprising the Treasury, the Reserve Bank and SARS as a minority set these targets.
“It would be extremely difficult for SARS to manipulate refunds to achieve targets,” Carolissen said.
The revenue service had stopped R15bn in verifiable tax fraud in 2017, he said.
CEO in the Office of the Tax Ombud advocate Eric Mkhawane noted that the tax ombud had investigated undue delays in the payment of verified tax refunds and had found the complaints were justified. However, the probe was not about SARS deliberately withholding refunds in order to boost revenue.