Another win for SARS against organised crime
An inter-governmental search and seizure operation was conducted to break the syndicate of coal smugglers that added to South Africa's load shedding woes.
SARS was instrumental in making this happen by flagging those involved.
The loss to the fiscus from the syndicate amounts to roughly R500 million. Curbing this activity will help reduce load shedding and ultimately help improve economic activity if SA can keep the lights on.
The alleged smugglers were from Mpumalanga, Gauteng, Limpopo, Free state and Kwazulu-Natal and included former Eskom employees.
How was SARS instrumental in the process? SARS was able to uncover the connection between the parties involved in the crimes through exposing the failure to submit tax returns, under declaration and VAT refunds being claimed that were illegitimate.
The syndicate was taking the high-grade coal to yards where it would be dumped and then replaced with low grade coal which was then delivered to power plants resulting in bad grade coal being used which in turn affects the usability of a plant as maintenance and down time will increase is sub optimum coal is used to power the grid.
A stern warning was issued by SARS that organised crime will be "hunted down and brought to book".
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