We'll find govt R500bn

BUDGET: SHORTFALL IS R58BN BUT OUTA UPBEAT ITS 13-POINT PLAN WILL GET MONEY FLOWING

- Ina Opperman

With the budget less than a week away and the government of national unity still unable to find common ground about where to find the budget shortfall of R58 billion, civil society organisation Outa has come up with a plan for the minister of finance to find R500 billion.

Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) CEO Wayne Duvenage says in a letter to Enoch Godongwana the over-reliance on borrowing and increasing taxes has left little room for him to manoeuvre. "The reality is clear: SA has reached, if not surpassed, its tax collection ceiling. There is little left to extract from taxpayers and any increase of VAT must be an absolute last resort."

Outa identified 13 areas that, if implemented, could conservatively over R650 billion within two years and approximately R500 billion annually thereafter, far exceeding the R50 to R60 billion that a 2% VAT hike would bring, Duvenage says.

These 13 areas are:

Tightening tax collection and enforcement to address under-invoicing, customs fraud, tax evasion by high-net-worth individuals and corporations and illicit financial flows. This could recover as much as R525 billion in the short term and R337.5 billion beyond two years