EXCLUSIVE: Cough up, Sars tells BAT-SA
Local unit of huge tobacco multinational faces hefty claims of unpaid tax, fraud
The South African Revenue Service (Sars) is pursuing the local operation of global cigarette giant British American Tobacco (BAT), claiming R143m for alleged tax fraud and evading excise duties. The alleged contraventions, which BAT-SA vehemently denies, saw the company allegedly receiving undue rebates from Sars. Instead, BAT-SA claims Sars still owes it R30m in rebates. According to a letter from Sars to BAT-SA that Business Times has seen, the rebates were received after BAT-SA applied to Sars to reprocess millions of cigarettes, including the Princeton brand, because of apparent manufacturing defects. PODCAST: Listen to more commentary on the topic. Subscribe: iono.fm | Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Pocket Casts | Player.fm Sars found BAT-SA allegedly lied about the reasons for reprocessing the cigarettes, and in some cases merely changed the packaging to reflect a "limited edition" cover.Sars gave BAT-SA a way out: pay a R5m fine, R102m in excise duties and forfeitures and R36m in...
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