I want some more,” requested Oliver Twist in Charles Dickens’ 1837 novel, Parish Boy's Progress. Just how nicely the South African Revenue Service (Sars) is going to ask the South African taxpayer to pay more money remains to be seen.

Did you know that, while Twist’s famous phrase in the nineteenth century was a request for a little more gruel, it is now better recognised as the rising anthem of greed? It is reminiscent of the words of Janet Majors (née Weiss) a character from the musical productions of The Rocky Horror Show, who sang: “I’ve tasted blood and I want more (more, more, more).”

This brings us to Sars’ media statement of October 26, which was titled ‘Sars committed to achieve higher revenue estimate’. The release of the statement followed the delivery, on the same day, of the Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement, during which Finance Minister Enock Godongwana said: “Sars must collect R1 682-billion, from R1598-billion”. To put this into perspective, about 90% of all government revenue is reportedly provided by Sars. The revenue service’s commissioner added in the statement: “While the revised revenue estimate is steep, we are committed to act according to what is permissible in law to meet this challenge.”

The increased target was set in the month in which Sars celebrated its silver jubilee, having been established on October 2, 1997. I was at the Sars launch, which on some days feels like an eternity ago, but on others like only yesterday.

The challenge for the revenue collector is South Africa’s gross domestic product, which is expected to grow by 1.9% this year, down from 4.9% in 2021.

According to Sars, its compliance enforcement efforts have contributed 12% to net revenue collection. As an illustration of the success of these efforts, in the current financial year, 186 691 final demands were issued and successfully pursued, resulting in R35.2-billion being collected, while R28-billion in impermissible and fraudulent refund claims were detected, resulting in their not being processed. Moreover, Sars set up specialised teams that assessed the accuracy of provisional tax payments, resulting in R8.4-billion being collected, while over 2 675 Customs interventions resulted in R1.2-billion being collected, and efforts to counter syndicated tax and Customs crimes netted a further R1.9-billion. Other successes included obtaining one preservation order to the value of R150-million, thus increasing the estimated value of assets under preservation orders to about R2.9-billion; securing the liquidation and sequestration of assets valued at about R2.3-billion; and conducting 478 illicit- trade-related interventions, resulting in 403 detentions and 252 seizures.

Sars says it is on course to further improve its revenue performance in line with its Vision 2020/21–2024/25, as well as its Strategic Intent of Voluntary Compliance. Its strategic objectives are to provide clarity and certainty for taxpayers and traders about their obligations; make it easy for taxpayers and traders to comply with their obligations; detect taxpayers and traders who don’t comply and make noncompliance hard and costly; develop a high-performing, diverse, agile, engaged and evolved workforce; increase and expand the use of data within a comprehensive knowledge management framework to ensure integrity, derive insight and improve outcomes; modernise systems to provide digital and streamlined online services; demonstrate effective resource stewardship to ensure efficiency and effectiveness; work with and through stakeholders to improve the tax ecosystem; and build public trust and confidence in the tax administration system.

As The Beatles’ 1966 song, Taxman, reminds us: “I’ll tax the street; (If you try to sit, sit) I’ll tax your seat; (If you get too cold, cold) I’ll tax the heat (If you take a walk, walk) I’ll tax your feet; 'Cause I’m the taxman; Yeah, I’m the taxman; ʻCause I’m the taxman; Yeah, I’m the taxman; And you’re working for no one but me (taxman).”