CHARGING 15% VAT ILLEGAL - SRA

MBABANE – Some businesses are rumoured to be charging 15 per cent VAT illegally.

In response to these allegations, the Swaziland Revenue Authority (SRA) has issued a stern warn

ing, that should any business be found to be charging 15 per cent Value Added Tax (VAT) prior to the promulgation of the proposed Finance Bill of 2018 into law, they could be charged.
“It remains illegal to charge 15 per cent VAT in Swaziland. Actually, VAT remains 14 per cent until such time when government has advised otherwise. If a company is found to be charging the illegal rate, it will have drastic consequences,” said SRA Director Communications Vusi Dlamini, during the tax engagement workshop held at Royal Swazi yesterday.    

When presenting the 2018/19 budget, Minister of Finance Martin Dlamini announced that revenue was expected to increase by two per cent in 2018/19 to E16.7 billion, excluding grants.
The increase was attributed to policies expected to be implemented in 2018/19, which were aimed at reducing reliance on Southern African Customs Union (SACU) revenue.

These included: collection of licence fees from mobile companies, increasing the VAT standard rate from 14 per cent to 15 per cent to align with the new rate announced by South Africa and to maintain the ‘Sekulula’ refund arrangement, introduction of a levy on bank revenue, amendment of the Income Tax Order, review of user fees and fuel tax and introduction of an import levy on non-SACU used vehicles.
Other policy measures include the additional taxation of alcohol and tobacco products.

“More importantly, the taxation of these products is aimed at controlling the consumption of these products. There are also plans to increase the fuel tax rate by 20 cents from the current E3 effective April1, 2018,” added Dlamini.
It should, however, be mentioned that the new taxes will come into effect when the Finance Bill of 2018 had been passed. 

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