The Road Accident Fund (RAF) has taken the SA Revenue Service (Sars) to court, accusing the tax authority of breaching an interim court order when it withdrew almost R1bn from the RAF levy pending a legal dispute between the two entities.
The RAF and Sars are at odds over R5.1bn that the tax authority wants to take from the RAF levy to pay Eskom for diesel refunds.
The high court in Pretoria on Tuesday will hear the urgent application in which the RAF contends Sars acted in “contempt” of an interim court order delivered last month by deducting R995,275,090 from the RAF levy before a final court outcome.
RAF CEO Collins Letsoalo, briefing the media on Monday, was adamant Sars acted unlawfully.
“There is a judgment that says Sars must not take that money. They have taken it. The judge gave two orders stopping Sars from taking the money from the RAF levy,” he said.
“We believe very strongly that we are entitled to that money, and no-one must take it away.”
The RAF, in court papers, said Sars did not abide by an interim court order issued on March 14 preventing the tax authority from withdrawing funds from the RAF levy before March 26.
“On March 19, five days after judge [Ronel] Tolmay issued the holding over order [interim order] and before March 26 when she delivered her judgment in the urgent application, Sars issued the February 2025 collection certificate,” the RAF court papers read.
Sars withdrew R995,275,090 for Eskom from the RAF levy before the court judgment, the RAF said. Sars has denied it acted in contempt of the court order.
Should the court find in favour of the RAF, the entity wants Sars to pay it R995,275,090 by April 22.
Letsoalo, in court papers, said Sars’ deductions would lead to thousands of claimants not being paid. The contested R5.1bn amounts to 10% of what the RAF collects through the levy annually.
“The claimants are going to suffer because we cannot take our own money and pay them. The reality is that they [Sars] deducted money they were not supposed to deduct. They must pay it back. We are confident the court will find in our favour yet again,” Letsoalo told Business Day.
Eskom claimed diesel refunds from Sars because it spends billions on diesel yearly for open-cycle gas turbines to avoid load-shedding.
It was detailed in court papers that Sars had not paid Eskom diesel refunds for 30 months (2019 to 2021) in a different dispute.
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