Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan has raised the alarm over the performance of the South African Revenue Service (SARS), which fell about R30.4bn short of the revenue target for 2016-17 set out in the previous budget. The R30.4bn revenue shortfall is the largest since the 2009 recession and means that tax increases of R28bn are required for the coming year. The Treasury has also flagged "heightened uncertainty regarding the path of revenue collection" as a major risk for public finances over the medium term, with Gordhan telling reporters on Wednesday that he had embarked on an intense set of engagements with senior management at SARS in the past month over his concerns. The revenue collection shortfall could not be attributed solely to the sluggish state of the economy and was also due to "challenges" within the tax authority, Gordhan said in an interview after a media briefing ahead of his budget speech in the National Assembly.
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