Times Of Swaziland: COURT ORDERS SRA TO PAY CJ E128 000

COURT ORDERS SRA TO PAY CJ E128 000
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 BY MBONGISENI NDZIMANDZE  on 27/02/2015 07:40:00


MBABANE – High Court Judge Mpendulo Simelane has ordered the Swaziland Revenue
Authority (SRA) to pay Chief Justice (CJ) Michael Ramodibedi a sum of E128 000.
This, after the CJ took the commissioner general of the SRA to court over the
taxation of his gratuity and allowances.
He was appealing a decision by SRA commissioner general where he deducted E128
000 from his gratuity.
The CJ stated, in his affidavit, that SRA wrongly deducted the said amount. The
money in question is the amount that was deducted at the end of the CJ’s term
before it was extended indefinitely.
Ramodibedi was appointed the country’s Chief Justice some time in 2009 and his
term of office elapsed in December 2012, as enshrined in the
Constitution.
However, his contract was renewed for an indefinite period sometime in 2012.
SRA effected a 33 per cent tax on the CJ’s gratuity amounting to E390 000 and
as a result, slashed E128 800.75.
It was also submitted that SRA taxed Ramodibedi’s allowances at the rate of 33
per cent.
In his appeal, he stated that SRA relied on Section 7 of the Income Tax Order to
hold that the gratuity in question was ‘voluntarily awarded’.
Overcharging
In his judgment, Judge Simelane found that it could never have been the
intention of the Legislature to accumulate tax to the revenue authority by
either overcharging taxpayers or simply making illegal claims against such as
demanding tax on gratuity where it was not due. “It is hereby declared that
the appellant ( CJ) is liable of taxation of 15 per cent and not 33 per cent for
salary and sitting allowances as has always been the case from 2006 to date,”
ordered Judge Simelane.