South Africa collected 1.686 trillion rand ($94 billion) in tax revenue for the fiscal year that ended on March 31, falling just shy of the government’s 1.692 trillion rand estimate in the 2023 budget, data from the revenue services showed on Monday.
The South African Revenue Service (SARS) said while mining volumes had decreased in the last year, higher commodity prices contributed significantly to improved tax receipts.
The main sources of revenue collection came from personal income tax at 35.7%, value-added tax at 25% and company income tax at 20.6%. The finance sector was by far the biggest contributor to tax revenues at 33.9%.
SARS said ongoing power cuts have had a “debilitating” effect on the economy and revenue collection, as it estimated that the outages contribute to potential tax revenue loss of 60 billion rand per annum at a minimum.
The South African Reserve Bank said on Thursday that it expected the domestic economy to grow by just 0.2% this year, a rate which the revenue services said will make it difficult to achieve collection targets for the year ahead.
The Treasury is targeting revenue collection of 1.787 trillion rand for the fiscal year to the end of next March.
