The South African Revenue Service (Sars) recorded a 9.6% growth in total revenue in the 2014/15 fiscal year.

“Despite challenging economic conditions, Sars collected R986.4 billion, which is a 9.6% growth in total revenue from 2013/14,” Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene said as he announced the revenue service’s preliminary revenue collection results for the 2014/15 financial year.

This was R7.4 billion above the revised estimate announced in the February 2015 Budget, Minister Nene said last week.

Briefing reporters in Pretoria, the Minister said the revenue performance was made possible by an extraordinary drive by Sars on compliance improvement, which in aggregate added about R22 billion.

“This closing of the compliance gap compensated for the revenue collection shortfall caused by a slowing economy,” he said.

The successful outcome of the 2014/15 revenue drive lifted the estimated tax-to-GDP ratio from the 25.2% anticipated in the 2015 Budget to 25.4%.