South Africa is losing around R3.6 billion every year because of illegal fuel
Image: File
South Africa is losing around R3.6 billion every year because of illegal fuel smuggling and tampering, according to the South African Revenue Service (SARS).
According to the Revenue Service criminals are importing fuel without paying the correct taxes and mixing diesel with cheaper products like paraffin.
"Over the past decade, countries along the Maputo Corridor (South Africa, Swaziland, and Mozambique) have become primary targets of the illicit fuel trade, which is driven by organised criminal networks that smuggle and illegally adulterate fuel," SARS said.
"SARS has established that some importers declare fuel amounting to 40 000 litres or less, whereas investigation reveals that up to 60 000 litres of fuel are actually imported. This is called under-declaration, and documents are falsified to perpetuate this fraudulent activity,"
SARS also reported a national trend involving fuel storage and distribution depots in the illegal mixing of diesel with paraffin, a practice contributing heavily to revenue losses.
"SARS has also detected a national trend where many of the fuel-storage and distribution depots are involved in the adulteration of all fuel products, especially through illegal mixing of diesel with paraffin. Fuel adulteration costs the fiscus approximately R3.6 billion per year according to statistics by the International Trade Administration Commission"
Sars added that government agencies are working together more closely to detect, prevent, and combat fuel adulteration and enforce the Customs and Excise Act.
"The intelligence-driven joint-enforcement interventions included search-and-seizure operations targeting certain fuel-storage facilities and depots as well as random sampling of tanker transport to test the fuel viscosity and composition. In some cases, adulterated diesel analysed by in these investigations had up to 68% paraffin content"
In a recent operation, SARS and SAPS targeted 23 sites in Gauteng, Mpumalanga, and KwaZulu-Natal and seized over 950,000 litres of contaminated diesel, shut down six illegal fuel depots, and confiscated assets worth R367 million.
“The criminal syndicates engaged in these brazen acts have become emboldened to act callously with no restraint in pursuit of their rapacious and criminal gains," SARS Commissioner Edward Kieswetter said.
“These syndicates can only underestimate our resolve to eradicate this criminality at their peril. These acts threaten the very foundation of our society. Our message is clear: we will spare no efforts to crush them”.