Mthobisi Nozulela | Published 1 hour ago
Minister of Finance Enoch Godongwana has revealed that South Africa’s customs detector dog unit is helping to protect an estimated R1.7 billion in revenue each year by intercepting illegal goods before they can enter the economy.
The minister revealed this in a written parliamentary reply after Democratic Alliance (DA) MP Wendy Alexander asked what contribution the unit has made to customs revenue protection and whether capacity shortfalls were affecting enforcement outcomes.
Godongwana said the South African Revenue Service’s detector dog unit has protected between R1.4 billion and R2 billion in revenue each year over the past three financial years.
He added that each working detector dog is linked to about R30 million in protected revenue per year, based on average performance.
"SARS does not maintain a direct quantified estimate of revenue foregone because of Detector Dog Unit (DDU) capacity constraints. An indicative estimate may, however, be derived from the contribution of the DDU to revenue protection," Godongwana said.
"Based on an average annual revenue protection value of approximately R1.7 billion over the past three financial years, and an operational deployment capacity of approximately 57 detector dogs (66 less nine unassigned handlers), the estimated contribution per deployed detector dog could be estimated is in the order of R29.7 million per annum".
Godongwana also said that a shortfall of 14 detector dogs could represent about R415 million in potential revenue protection each year.
"On this basis, the current shortfall of 14 detector dogs may represent an indicative revenue protection gap of approximately R415 million per annum. This estimate remains subject to operational deployment, the prevailing risk environment and detection success rates".
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