Lack sense of urgency and are toothless

On 18 August 2021, we submitted an application for a non-commercial manufacturing license of biofuels to SARS - with all supporting documentation included. 5 months later, we still had not received the feedback from our application, this is despite multiple escalations and complaints lodged with SARS and their complaint management office (CMO). In January 2022, we lodged a complaint with the office of the tax ombud and they agreed to take the case. They had recommended to SARS to process the application, SARS responded to a completely different application. We responded to the OTO to say SARS had responded to an incorrect application and they rejected the close out report from SARS. Now when we follow up we are told they will revert back to us without giving a specific timeframe - since they don't send progress reports every 15 days like they claim to. Currently they don't even respond to our follow up enquiries. We highlighted the fact that without a specific timeframe, their response is similar to SARS CMO who said they will revert back to us since December and to this date that case remains open with no update.

The sad thing about the whole process is that we are not allowed to operate/commence with the manufacturing activities without the license and it has now been 7 months since we made the application, which had the maximum turnaround time of 21 days. The OTO is not being helpful at all as now we have to wait for them to revert back to us indefinitely and are not even responding to our follow-ups.