The South African Revenue Services fulfils a number of roles in the reform process of South African Society through its collection of revenue to fund Government programmes, the facilitation of trade and economic security and contributing to an economy that supports growth and development. As the key revenue collector of government, SARS is mandated to collect revenue from all taxes. These tax types include Income Tax, VAT, PAYE, and Skills development, Levy, Customs Duty and Excise Tax. One of the taxes administered by the SARS on behalf of the Ministry Of Finance is Excise Duty. The Customs and Excise Act 91 of 1964 defines Excise duty as any duty leviable on certain locally manufactured goods. The tax on these goods is commonly referred to as sin taxes by the Ministry of Finance as these goods are seen as luxury goods. Products on which Excise Duty in levied include alcohol, fuel, beer, cigarette, tobacco, spirits and wine. Prior to 2 April 2003 the system used by the Oil industry to account for the sales of fuel was a sales based system. This effectively meant that excise duty could be deferred for a period of up to two years. This manner of taxation allowed the fuel industry to only pay tax once there had been a sale of the fuel. It therefore reduced the tax liability at the time of manufacture. The Duty at Source initiative of the SARS was aimed at ensuring that all excise duties be collected at the time of manufacture rather than the time of sale. Duty at source for the fuel industry was implemented on 2 April 03. Duty at source requires that the duty is paid at source i.e. at the time of manufacture of fuel in the refineries. The purpose of the new system was to facilitate the easier collection of revenue and to introduce greater efficiency both for the South African Revenue Services as well as the external role players. The implementation of this new system of assessing duty created a series of administrative and compliance burdens for both parties i.e. for SARS and taxpayers. The implementation was further not supported by a strategic framework. Due to the lack of the strategic perspective, this study undertakes to identify, suggest and evaluate strategies to manage the cost of compliance as a result of the duty at source implementation. To support the suggested strategies an operational framework will also be developed to facilitate successful implementation. / Thesis (MBA)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2005.

The highway related revenues for the Commonwealth of Virginia from three major tax sources; fuel tax, registration fee, and sales and use tax are estimated under three scenarios. Each scenario assumes different economic conditions for the future. The base case expects normal or moderate situations for future economy, where the optimistic case expects lower inflation rates and the pessimistic case assumes higher inflation rates. Two modeling approaches have been used in forecasting the fuel tax revenue. One is based on travel, and the other is based on gasoline demand. The sales and use tax revenue has also been forecasted using two different approaches. One method depends on the demand for vehicle, and the other on the historical amount of revenues generated. Registration fee revenue for five types of vehicles are forecasted using number of registered vehicles and the average registration fees. A comparison of the developed model with other existing state revenue forecasting models are also presented. / Master of Science

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Motor fuel taxes have been collected as a principal source of highway funding for close to a century. They account for approximately two thirds of all the highway user fees and about half of all highway expenditures. Federal fuel taxes have not kept pace with the inflation in general and increasing traffic demand and resulting construction, maintenance and operation costs of the transportation assets in particular. Lack of political will, combined with rising anti-tax sentiment among the populace, has kept the federal tax level not only well below its initial intents, but also at a unsustainable level in future. Mileage based user fees are possibly an alternative to the fuel taxes, which have been the main mechanism for funding the transportation system. Mileage based user fees have been successfully utilized in many parts of the world with glowing results. Germany‟s “TollCollect”, a quasi government enterprise has utilized GPS technology in collecting the users‟ fee from the truck operators. The system has been a financial engine providing much needed funding for many major transportation projects. Oregon Department of Transportation, in a federally co-funded pilot project, examined the practicality of the mileage based user fee collection at the fuel pumps. According to the Oregon study, there are not any major technical difficulties in mileage based user fee collection at the pump. Study participants (general motorist) did not express any objection to the mileage based user fee collection. This dissertation evaluates revenue impacts of several pricing policies including: Current per gallon fuel taxes, conversion to a mileage based user fee, time of day user fee application, iv area type user fee and congestion priced user fees. State of Florida‟s years 2015-2035 fuel revenue forecast is used as a case study. A model is constructed to estimate annual vehicle miles travelled for the analyses period. Fuel efficiencies, current per gallon fuel taxes and their corresponding mileage-based user fee equivalents are the input to a financial model developed for comparisons. Results demonstrate that decrease in fuel revenues due to vehicles fuel efficiency improvements can be offset by replacing current per gallon fuel taxes with a mileage-based user fee. Pricing the user fee according to area type, roadway classification, time of day and congestion level can not only generate more revenues but also assist in demand management.