JOHANNESBURG – Billionaire Mark Shuttleworth has lost his battle with the Reserve Bank over the R250 million exit levy it charged him.
Shuttleworth was challenging the constitutional validity of an exit charge imposed on R2.5 billion that he took out of South Africa in 2009.
He took the matter to the North Gauteng High Court after paying the levy in protest, but lost.
The court did however, declare a number of the Exchange Control Regulations unconstitutional.
Last year, the Supreme Court of Appeal ruled that the Reserve Bank should not have forced him to pay the levy and ordered it to repay the money to Shuttleworth.
The Reserve Bank and finance minister took the matter to the Constitutional Court which ruled that the exit charge was not inconsistent with the constitution.
The court said, “the dominant purpose of the exit charge was not to raise revenue but rather to regulate conduct by discouraging the export of capital to protect the domestic economy.”
– eNCA