A businesswoman and a tax practitioner accused of trying to defraud the South African Revenue Services (Sars) of over R6 million have been released on bail.
Cecillia Nomvume Makaula, 58, a company director, and Ayanda Peyana, 41, a tax practitioner and their business entity Ntombi Rhadi Trading CC appeared in the Mthatha Specialised Commercial Crime Court on Thursday.
The Directorate for Priority Crimes Investigation (known as the Hawks) said the duo were arrested on allegations of Value Added Tax fraud.
Eastern Cape Hawks spokesperson Warrant Officer Ndiphiwe Mhlakuvana said Makaula, is sole director of Ntombi Rhadi Trading CC.
“It is alleged that during the period between May 2020 and May 2022, Makaula and Peyana colluded by means of misrepresentation to induce Sars to believe that they were entitled to a VAT refund of over R6.1 million.
“The suspects allegedly submitted a fraudulent VAT 201 returns on behalf of the business entity.
“Subsequent to that, Sars reportedly conducted its internal assessment and picked up ‘red flags’ in the returns submitted for the financial years in question.“
Mhlakuvana said some of the returns were reportedly rejected by Sars and some were paid to the business entity.
The matter was reported to the Hawks.
“The investigations revealed that the accused had intentionally submitted false vat returns to defraud Sars, where the potential prejudice of an amount of over R6.1 million was nearly suffered.
“Sars actually suffered a loss of R4,164.99 in refunds to their business entity.”
The accused were released on R3,000 bail each and the matter was adjourned to July 31, 2024 for docket contents.
-IOL News
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