Johannesburg – The South African Reserve Service (SARS) is going after people who benefitted from state capture and who failed to pay tax on their ill-gotten gains.
Sars Commissioner Edward Kieswetter told Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) that the revenue service was working on seven state capture-related projects and had already handed over 27 criminal cases to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).
He did not name anyone while briefing the committee, but detailed the revenue service’s investigations into state capture, tax evaders and illicit financial flows.
He added that Sars had over 500 active investigations where prejudice to the state could amount to as much as R4-billion.
“Specifically within state capture projects, we are looking at seven projects which have arisen and there we have 85 civil matters and 58 criminal matters that relate purely to state capture.
“Seven of the civil matters have been finalised and 32 of the criminal investigations have been finalised by Sars and 27 of these matters have been handed to the NPA.”
Kieswetter said that Sars would be meeting with the NPA next week to ensure that the matter it had handed over for criminal investigation got priority.
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