The paradox of SARS
In South Africa our tax collecting department (SARS) has made huge progress in the past 10 years or so. Collections have never been higher. Credit for this dramatic improvement is often given to the marketing campaign SARS has gone on to communicate it’s efficiency, zero tolerance approach, and most impactful of all it’s absolute power to reach into your life and turn it upside down. Nobody is above SARS. I’ve often wandered what would happen if the top dogs at SARS took over the Police Force in South Africa. I reckon they’d stamp out crime and corruption within 6 months.
But here’s the interesting part, and I have no real way of knowing, but when I talk to those I know who are in the know, they tell me SARS has never been in more chaos internally. Backlogs, systems that aren’t connected, etc, etc. I have a friend who has experienced some of this over the last 3 weeks. They just moved house and with the new laws that SARS has created, you can’t sell your house without it going through SARS. That way if you owe any money they apparently deduct it when the sale goes through and then pass on the balance to you. Luverlee. But in order for this to happen you must have a SARS number. So this year my friends wife filled a tax return (she hadn’t had to until this point) in order to get a Tax Number. She was told 21 working days till the number would be available. It’s been around 40 working days now and when you hear the story of being passed from pillar to post within SARS with no sign of a number of information on when it will be available, it makes for a comical read.
And there’s the paradox, or perhaps the power of marketing. On one front SARS appears to be a finely tuned and well oiled machine. But beneath the layer of hype and spin sits a giant that doesn’t know it’s… well you know what I’m getting at.
Nuf Sed
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Hey Barrie, as you know I spend a lot of time dealing with SARS and have found them by and large pretty efficient. I guess it’s not what you know but who you know and where you are dealing with them. I use the call centre here in Pinetown and have found them pretty efficient by Govt. department standards.
Now if you want to compare Govt. departments, here’s my pile from worse to bad.
1 Dept. of Home Affairs. Ever tried getting a passport of ID document?
2 Dept. of Transport. I spent 2 hours on Wednesday deregistering a vehicle which had involuntarily been redistributed to the needy. The actual transaction took 45 seconds, but you needed to sit on the “shifting benches� for two hours to get to one of the two windows open.
3 Police. Notice the sympathy when you report something stolen. I had my laptop stolen out of a B&B in Stellenbosch and all the cop wanted to know was whether I just wanted a case number for insurance purposes or whether I wanted to lay a charge. If I wanted the latter he assured me that I would need to return to CT to attend court!!!
I am sure anyone reading this blog will have equally horrific stories about some Govt. dept. or another. I do however have one good story and that is the old DTI (now known as CIPRO).They have a fully operational website through which you can submit annual returns, register entities and basically do anything they require electronically. No queuing, no complicated forms in triplicate (the website explains everything) just get the job done.
.Now imagine if this could be done by Dept. of Home Affairs or the Dept. of Transport…… one can only dream.
I now have my American 10 year multiple entry visa, but the first time going to get my visa at their consulate in Joburg was a nightmare. A very long line greeted the visitor and the whole process just took ages – not the best way to spend a morning. Until some bright spark decided to incorporate a mandatory internet booking system where you book your slot a week or so in advance and arrive just before your appointment. The whole process took less than 40 minutes – a great example of people using technology to help.
And look, I even used “mandatory” instead of “compulsory” – I think that’s an Americanism?