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5. THE MODERNISATION OF SARS 5.1 SARS’s Journey Overview Modernisation through digital transformation has been a journey over three decades:
SARS 1.0
SARS 2.0
SARS 3.0
1999 - 2003
2004 - 2005
2006 - 2014
2015 - 2018 2019 - 2024
2024 - Beyond
Preparation for the Modernisation Programme
Siyakha Transformation Programme
Vision 2029 Programme
Modernisation Programme
Operating Model Programme
Vision 2024 Programme
Building ‘Digital Transformation’ Capacity
Enabling our processes through technology
Building the foundation
Enterprise Restructuring
The age of Artificial Intelligence
Disruptive Innovation
• Reprioritisation of modernization in alignment with the SARS 2024 • Focused on Customer Experience • Focused on operational excellence (10x, 20-mile march, etc.) • New enterprise operating model restructuring
• Create a process engineering (design) and Information
Tax
• Customer- centricity • ‘Tax just happens’ • Shift from rules-based to behaviour-based risk management • Expanding the use of Artificial Intelligence and Data Science • Digitally Enabled
• Establish a
Customs & Excise
Risk
• Diagnostic • Enterprise
Service
diagnostic baseline • Concentrate high volumes work • Standardise and baseline processes • Address physical infrastructure • Train, centralise and redeploy people
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Support
Operating Model Restructuring focused on ‘people’ • Continuation of the modernization programme
Management competency
• Determine a
• Invest in
scientific fact base • Adopt 80/20 prioritization • Listen to the voice of the customer • Automate processes • Use an iterative approach
technology • Secure change partners • Enhance operational management capabilities
and Insights Driven Tax Authority
Figure 5: Overview of SARS’s Modernisation Journey
Modernising SARS is not a finite project that can be completed once and for all. Instead, modernisation should be seen as a process of continuous improvement, with the clear goal of providing for the “efficient and effective administration of the revenue collecting system” (SARS Act of 1997, amended 2002). This requires the ongoing assessment, and improvement of the efficacy of the tax and customs administration system, and to comprehensively exploring strategies, ways of working, and an “operational model” that synthesises the effort of employees, in an environment enabled by technology and insights from data, and other resources. Modernisation is ultimately a way of being,
and not a project. Modernisation phases are distinct though, and has benefitted more recently, from the unprecedented speed of digital innovation, characterised by super-computational capability, data science and artificial intelligence. In particular, agentic AI is transforming AI from being “tools” that enhances our work like prosthetics, into “agents” that work alongside us. This necessitates the ongoing formulation and review of institutional transformation and modernisation that is enabled as technologies progress and innovations emerge. This implies that institutional transformation is increasingly linked to digital transformation and consists of the successful implementation of interconnected projects.
SARS Modernisation White Paper 2025/26 – 2029/30
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