Cape Town - Investigation unit SCORPIO claimed on Wednesday that, based on another series of leaked emails, former Eskom CEO Brian Molefe got a "tax discount" of R1.3m apart from his R30m Eskom pension.
SCORPIO had previously claimed that the R30m pension granted to Molefe was calculated as if he had ten years' service at Eskom and worked there for 156 months. However, Molefe actually contributed only 15 months’ pension payments to the Eskom Pension and Provident Fund. Eskom is picking up the tab for the shortfall.
READ: Public Protector to probe Molefe's R30m pension payout
SCORPIO claims Molefe was not even eligible to be a fund member to start with. It also claims that evidence in its possession shows that Molefe’s pension payment was incorrectly taxed, allowing him to get what Scorpio deems to be an unlawful R1.3-million tax discount.
"The South African Revenue Service (Sars) did the calculations based on information incorrectly provided by the Eskom Pension Fund. The documentary evidence in Scorpios's possession does not reveal any intention by the fund to defraud Sars or that it did so at Molefe’s request," SCORPIO stated.
Molefe told the investigation unit he was not aware of this tax discount and that SARS will reconcile everything and inform him how much was outstanding.
Eskom declined to answer questions posed by SCORPIO.
SUBSCRIBE FOR FREE UPDATE: Get Fin24's top morning business news and opinions in your inbox.
Read Fin24's top stories trending on Twitter: Fin24’s top stories