1. The current administration has no knowledge that any SARS employee held an in-depth interview with a certain newspaper. SARS employees are prohibited from disclosing any taxpayer information contrary to the provisions of Chapter 6 of the Tax Administration Act, 2011. This is an offence in terms of section 236 of that Act.
2. (a)(b) As at the date of providing this response SARS cannot locate a reply to a media inquiry to a certain newspaper during 1 January 2014 and 31 March 2014. It is however noted that in an article published by a certain newspaper on 20 March 2014 it is reported that “Sars provided amaBhungane with general details of the work it has done to combat non-compliance in the tobacco industry, but did not comment on the specific incidents referred to in this article.”