By Umamah Bakharia

President Cyril Ramaphosa says the SA Revenue Service is becoming more efficient in tackling tax dodgers and those benefitting from crime and corrupt activities.

The president praised the agency for its progress in the past two decades in his weekly newsletter. Sars announced on Friday that it collected more than R1.5-trillion between April last year and March this year as it announced its preliminary tax revenue.

Radio Islam discussed this further with Sars Commissioner Edward Kieswetter.

He says that the better SARS functions, the stakeholders gain because the cost of the overall economy improves.

“If our debts reduce, our debt service cost reduces and when [that] decreases, it’s more money for goods and services,” says Keiswetter.

The revenue service also announced a ‘SARS vision 2024’ that aims to rebuild the agency into a smart and modernised service.

“When we set ourselves the goal, it was a 5-year goal and the vision for the smart modern Sars is a vision that will happen as we proceed to progress in three areas where need to improve,” says Keiswetter.

These three areas include restoring quality people that operate within Sars and improving data science and technology- to build “a modern interconnected ecosystem.”

In response to State Capture, Keiswetter says: “we were able to work with our colleges in the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) to ensure that a number of these areas are brought to book.”