• SARS has told South Africans to be mindful of prices now that the VAT rate will remain at 15 percent.
• Consumers are urged to resolve any instances where a VAT rate of 15.5 percent is charged in-store, obtaining a refund or mutual agreement before leaving.
• A court order was granted this week that reverses the VAT hike that was announced in March.

Last week, at the last possible moment, the Ministry of Finance announced that the proposed 0.5 percentage point increase of VAT would no longer be happening.

The lateness of the announcement means companies that spent months adjusting their prices and their underlying commerce systems, had to suddenly reverse those changes. As a result, we’ve seen a drip feed of announcements that price hikes associated with the now dead VAT increase would no longer be happening.

However, while the Ministry of Finance declared that the increase wouldn’t be moving forward, there was still a need for a court order to suspend the increase. This has lead to some confusion among retailers and consumers with some positing that retailers would ignore the declaration without a court order.

That court order has been granted and the Minister of Finance, Enoch Godongwana has accepted it.

SARS has also told South Africans to be aware that there is “…no basis for VAT vendors to implement an increase of VAT rate”.

If consumers are charged a VAT rate of 15.5 percent, SARS recommends they bring this to the attention of the vendor and ensure it is resolved before leaving the store either through a correction or some other mutual agreement. This is terribly important and we recommend our readers study their till slips from Thursday onwards to make sure that stores aren’t taking a chance and trying to get a few extra funds.

We recognise that mistakes happen and the lateness of the retraction of the means that businesses had to scramble to adjust the changes they made to account for the VAT hike, that was announced in March. As such, it’s up to consumers to check that their purchases aren’t attracting a 15.5 percent VAT rate.

Many companies that warned customers about the incoming VAT hike, and price hikes as a result, have told customers that these prices hikes will no longer come into effect. This includes the likes of Discovery, FNB, Cool Ideas, WebAfrica and many more.

Still, be aware of your purchases from tomorrow onwards and don’t just chuck your slip in the trash as you leave the store.