SOUTH AFRICAN REVENUE SERVICE
PRESS STATEMENT

19 OCTOBER 2005

LAUNCH OF THE SARS SERVICE CHARTER

The South African Revenue Service (SARS) today officially releases the SARS Service Charter and Service Standards to the public.

The Charter commits SARS to clearly defined deliverables that must be implemented by 2007.

It sets standards publicly, in the spirit of Batho Pele, for the levels of service expected of SARS officials to taxpayers.

With the Service Standards SARS commits itself publicly to:

• Answer 90% of calls by taxpayers within 20 seconds
• Attend to 95% of visitors to a SARS branch office within 15 minutes of arrival (without an appointment)
• Respond within 21 working days to 80% of all correspondence
• Process and assess 80% of correctly completed and signed Income Tax Returns within 90 working days during peak periods (July to February) and 34 working days from the date of receipt in off-peak periods (March to June)
• Process 90% of all electronically submitted export and import returns within 4 hours of receipt and within 24 hours of receiving manual submissions
• Process VAT refunds in 21 working days of receipt
• Process Income Tax Return refunds in 30 working days from the assessment date

The Charter is also a statement of intent through which SARS undertakes to uphold and respect the rights of taxpayers, to educate taxpayers about their tax obligations and to positively influence the compliance climate in South Africa by adhering to these service standards.

It is also a service commitment that sets performance targets which the organisation must implement over the next 18 months and with which compliant taxpayers can judge the quality of SARS' processes, its integrity and its conduct.

During the last three years, these service standards have been benchmarked against international best practice. It has been modeled on similar service offerings of other leading revenue and customs administrations - most notably the Australian Tax Office and the revenue administrations in Canada, Ireland, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.

Notwithstanding the developmental challenges SARS is still confronted with in transforming itself into a customer focused and innovative revenue administration, these Service Standards will become a tool to hold SARS accountable for the level of services delivered to taxpayers.

END.

For further media enquiries please contact Adrian Lackay on 012 422 3067 or 083 388 2580.

ISSUED BY THE COMMISSIONER FOR THE SOUTH AFRICAN REVENUE SERVICE
PRETORIA