SRA STAFF CASH IN E207M IN 2017

MBABANE – Your tax put over E12  million more into the pockets of SRA staff in 2017.   Salaries, wages and other allowances for the average of 725 Swaziland Revenue Authority (SRA) employees increased by slightly above E12.7 million when compared to 2016 financial year where there were 684 employees.

In its latest report, the SRA has disclosed that it paid out E207 964 007 to members of staff which increased from E195 234 054 in 2016.
Independent calculations by the Business Desk reflected that this increase was about six per cent on average. On a different note, the Board of Directors Chaired by Ambrose Dlamini also had their expenses in a downward trend. The board expenses were reduced from E241 400 to E212 250 during the period under review. This effectively means the board saved nearly E30 000 when compared to the previous year.

Commissioner General Dumisani Masilela reported that the period under review, had been successful for the SRA in as far as revenue collection was concerned. He said the Ministry of Finance had given them a target that looked impossible to achieve as it was not supported by the revenue forecasting models used to derive such.

He mentioned that it had been underpinned by some proposed policy changes which, unfortunately did not materialise. “I am delighted to report that the SRA continued to achieve its core mandate of collecting revenue according to the expectations of Government during the period under review. The year 2016/17 saw a collection of E7.8 billion against a Government target of E7.4 billion, which was a good five per cent above the target and, an improvement of 17 per cent from the    previous financial year’s collections,” said Masilela.   

The CG pointed out that this was significantly higher than inflation and    the country’s economic growth rate.
He said they had also been assisted to a large extent by the fact that government increased salaries by a larger than expected margin, therefore boosting out Pay As You Earn (PAYE) collections. “We do, however, pride ourselves in the very positive results delivered by our own compliance initiatives such as the project team that scrutinised Value Added Tax (VAT) refunds and closed some loopholes there,” said Masilela. Masilela said increasing levels of voluntary compliance remained key to the operations of the SRA as it was through higher levels of voluntary compliance that the cost of enforcement and administration can be reduced, and more innovative solutions offered to taxpayers.

The CG expressed pride that they had several productive engagements with various sectors of the taxpaying community and other in-country partners and stakeholders, which have gone a long way in contributing to increased levels of compliance and domestic resource mobilisation.

 
    

Post your comment

Your name:

Your e-mail address:

Add your comments:

Please enter the code you see in the image:

Image:

Code: