COURT ORDERS SRA TO PAY CJ E128 000

MBABANE – High Court Judge Mpendulo Simelane has ordered the Swaziland Revenue Authority (SRA) to pay Chief Justice (CJ) Michael Ramodibedi a sum of E128 000.

This, after the CJ took the commissioner general of the SRA to court over the taxation of his gratuity and allowances.
He was appealing a decision by SRA commissioner general where he deducted E128 000 from his gratuity.

The CJ stated, in his affidavit, that SRA wrongly deducted the said amount. The money in question is the amount that was deducted at the end of the CJ’s term before it was extended indefinitely.
Ramodibedi was appointed the country’s Chief Justice some time in 2009 and his term of office elapsed in December 2012, as enshrined in the

Constitution.

However, his contract was renewed for an indefinite period sometime in 2012.
SRA effected a 33 per cent tax on the CJ’s gratuity amounting to E390 000 and as a result, slashed E128 800.75.
It was also submitted that SRA taxed Ramodibedi’s allowances at the rate of 33 per cent.
In his appeal, he stated that SRA relied on Section 7 of the Income Tax Order to hold that the gratuity in question was ‘voluntarily awarded’.

Overcharging

In his judgment, Judge Simelane found that it could never have been the intention of the Legislature to accumulate tax to the revenue authority by either overcharging taxpayers or simply making illegal claims against such as demanding tax on gratuity where it was not due. “It is hereby declared that the appellant ( CJ) is liable of taxation of 15 per cent and not 33 per cent for salary and sitting allowances as has always been the case from 2006 to date,” ordered Judge Simelane.

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