South African Revenue Services (Sars) boss Pravin Gordhan hit the streets of Tshwane yesterday in an attempt to establish the tax literacy levels of small and medium sized businesses.

"We are going to listen to their problems and ask them what Sars can do to make it easier for small business to operate in an environment that supports growth," Gordhan said in a statement.

The purpose of the walkabout was to assess the levels of tax literacy among small, medium and micro (SMME) enterprises and to hear their concerns.

Sars wanted to improve its relationship with this sector of the economy, Gordhan said.

This follows a request by Finance Minister Trevor Manuel in his budget speech earlier this year for a task team to be established to look at ways in which the "regulatory burden" on small business could be reduced.

It was hoped this would then lead to more small businesses being started.

Sars spokesman Adrian Lackay said the task team would be set up once it was decided what needed to be done to bring SMMEs into the tax fold.

While walking through Mamelodi, northeast of Pretoria, Gordhan visited panelbeating, brick making and electrical engineering enterprises.

"We wanted to hear from them how we can improve the administrative. These are our clients. We need to understand our clients better so what that we can actually then respond to their particular needs," the commissioner said.

The visit confirmed that Mamelodi had a thriving local economy with many entrepreneurial opportunities, he added.

"However, not all business owners were aware of their obligations to register their businesses as tax entities and pay tax. This led one to think that the level of compliance and tax literacy within the SMME sector was low," Gordhan said.

"We take SMMEs seriously and want to assist them and at the same time want better compliance from them."

Similar visits would be conducted in other parts of the country. – Sapa.