Tax coffers swell to R900bn

Johannesburg - South Africa's tax revenues jumped by 10.6% in the 2013/2014 fiscal year, helped by more people paying income tax due in part to tax changes, data showed on Tuesday.

Revenue from value-added tax rose more slowly, by 8.7%, curbed by the effects of a sluggish economy.

"Growth in domestic VAT (value-added tax) payments remains constrained by high consumer debt, modest job creation, low consumer confidence and little real growth in disposable income," South Africa's Revenue Services (Sars) said in a statement.

Tax revenues as a whole totalled R900bn ($82bn) for the year ending March 2014, up R86.2bn on the year and with personal income tax accounting for 34.5% of that increase.

The government increased tax rebates for lower-income brackets in 2013 to encourage more people to pay tax.

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The number of individuals registered for income tax as of March 31 2014 had increased by 1.4 million from a year earlier to 16.8 million, the data from Sars showed.

South Africa is considered a middle-income economy and the continent's most advanced, but has cut its growth forecasts consistently this year after avoiding a technical recession in the second quarter.

It now expects economic growth of 1.4% for 2014, well below its desired medium-term growth levels of 5%.

Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene said on October 22 that the Treasury would look to raise tax revenues over the next two years in order to narrow the country's budget deficit, which it forecasts at 4.1% of gross domestic product for 2014/15.