An increase of tax revenue in South Africa this financial year indicated that Africa's economic powerhouse was performing better than expected, Finance Minister Trevor Manuel said on Monday.

The South African Revenue Service (SARS) announced on Monday that it collected 418.116 billion rand (66.37 billion U.S. dollars) in taxation this year, 1 billion rand more than the revised budget of 417 billion rand for the last financial year.

The amount was also 45.3 billion rand more than the original estimate of 372.8 billion rand.

Manuel said the preliminary revenue result gave "further credence and justification to the mood of optimism and confidence in the country and our ability to fund our ambition for a better life for all South Africans."

"South Africa and its people are now reaping the rewards of an upbeat economy, improved tax compliance and civic responsibility and a steadily improving tax and customs administration," he was quoted as saying by the SAPA news agency.

On Friday, the last day of the financial year, SARS collected 16 billion rand.

"That speaks of an organization that functions, and a system that works," Manuel said.

He said the initial figure had been based on macroeconomic assumptions which had changed during the year with the economy doing much better that the assumption predicted.

He said one of the consequential benefits was an acceleration of commercial activity on the supply of goods and services on the back of an increased consumption demand.

"This resulted in an increase in gross domestic product, imports, gross operating surpluses and gross domestic expenditure, " he said.

Corporate income tax performed better than expected, with 88.79 billion rand collected.

But South African taxpayers still owe the SARS up to 35 billion rand, largely due to delayed payment, the agency said.

Source: Xinhua