Stepped-up border security catches up on VAT evaders
CLINT EASTWOOD and his Fistful of Dollars' is small fry in the eyes of smugglers attempting to get their goods across the borders into South Africa. Border officials recently inspected a truck with an alleged consignment of machinery - and found it packed with US dollars!
It's the type of haul we have been making since stepping up policing at the borders and catching up on the evaders of VAT payments, says Peter Frank, director VAT policy and legislation, South African Revenue Services (SARS).
But this, he told a gathering of the Exporters Club of South Africa in Johannesburg last week, was only one incident in many which his department has encountered in a massive crime wave which has been costing the country millions of rands in recent years.
Hauls of dagga and cocaine are regular catches, and there was one which came in from Lesotho recently where there was enough dagga to keep my department high for weeks, he said to laughter from his audience.
The US dollar load was a case of money laundering. I won't disclose the amount but it would have made a big dent in the economy had we not tracked down its source.
Until last November SARS was losing in the region of R100 million monthly through illegal imports but this has dwindled to somewhere between R5-R10 million a month, he said.
An unsual 'consigment' recently was that of a refrigerated truck-load of fish coming in from Namibia.
The officials at the border were suspicious and demanded to see the cargo. It turned out to be a packed container of illegal immigrants.
On the export side, there has been a considerable reduction in corruption, said Frank.
We have five people in custody right now after a massive cellphone scam was halted. A company which had been registered in this country was found to be a false cover, and their cheques bounced as well. That is what led us to them, but they had already been repaid R48 million in VAT refunds. That money, unfortunately cannot be recovered. It is floating around somewhere in the Lebanon.
