JOHANNESBURG: Commissioner Tom Moyane stated that the South African Revenue Service collected 986.4 billion rand of taxes in the year through 31 March. This was 7.4 billion rand more than the revised tax revenue estimate announced in the February budget. The final budget gap will only be known once data on government spending is finalized.he further stated that South Africa will probably meet or beat its budget deficit target of 3.9 percent of gross domestic product in the fiscal year that ended on Tuesday after collecting more tax than anticipated.
“Revenue growth this year just ended remained resilient,” Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene said. Tax revenue was 9.6 percent higher than the previous year, he said.
Nene announced the first income tax increases in 20 years in his February budget to help plug a revenue shortfall and imposed limits on state spending to contain debt and ward off further credit-rating downgrades. Standard & Poor’s rates South African debt one level above junk and below the assessments of Fitch Ratings Ltd. and Moody’s Investors Service.
The government plans to narrow the budget deficit to 2.5 percent of GDP in the fiscal year through March 2018 from an estimated 3.9 percent last year.
