Discussion | Illegal Cigarette Trade | SARS could have collected over R17bn in VAT in 2022

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CAPE TOWN – The SA Revenue Service has collected more than 1-point-7-trillion-Rand in net revenue. That’s ten-billion-Rand more than the target. 
READ: Discussion | SARS exceeds its targets
But the tax man could have had even more if government had dealt with the illegal cigarette trade.
According to researchers at UCT, the illicit market has cost public coffers around 100-billion-Rand since 2010. 
READ: Illegal tobacco trade | Smoking out illicit cigarette kingpins
They estimate that SARS could have collected over 17-billion-Rand in value added tax in 2022 alone. 
Corne van Walbeek, a Professor at UCT’s School of Economics spoke to the eNCA about this.
 
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