By REGINALD KANYANE
5 September 2024- A Durban businessman, Thoshan Panday (51), briefly appeared before the Durban Magistrate’s Court today, on 27 counts of fraud, alternatively Contraventions of Tax Legislation, which outlaw false returns in respect of VAT and Annual Income Tax (AIT).
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson, Henry Mamothame said the matter was postponed to 9 September 2024, for a bail application. Mamothame said the state intends opposing the bail.
“The state alleges that Panday was effectively in control of several entities, which had received payments from the South African Police Services (SAPS) in an amount of approximately R47 million, owing to a corrupt relationship with members of the Supply Chain Management Division of the SAPS.
“These payments were allegedly made in respect of services rendered to the SAPS preceding and during the Soccer World Cup in 2010. He faces charges together with eight others in the High Court of racketeering, fraud and corruption. This matter is ongoing,” he said.
Mamothame further said Panday now faces tax fraud charges as a result of the submission of tax returns in respect of the entities that he had controlled, which received payments from the SAPS during the 2010 and 2011 tax years.
He added that after the Investigating Directorate Against Corruption (IDAC) had extended its investigations into the tax compliance of the entities controlled by Panday, tax investigations conducted by SARS revealed that declarations made in the tax returns were false.
“It is alleged that SARS had suffered prejudice in the amount of approximately R 7.3 million as a result of these false tax declarations.
“To give effect to a whole-of-government approach by addressing financial crimes, including tax crime, cooperatively, SARS and the IDAC are collaborating to enhance voluntary tax compliance by making non-compliance hard and costly.
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