By Mustapha Jallow
Yankuba Darboe, the Commissioner General of the Gambia Revenue Authority (GRA), has announced that the authority will soon introduce a GPS aimed at tracking down rental compounds to curb tax evasion.
Addressing journalists yesterday at the GRA’s end of year press conference, CG Darboe urged compound owners to do themselves a favour by coming forward to pay their taxes, or risk facing tough action. He argued that the country cannot compromise with tax evasion anymore giving much attention and interest to revenue collection.
“If you are dealing in rental income or you have properties that you are renting, please come forward to the nearest GRA Office and make your declaration because if you don’t, we will come after you with our digital system that will have a GPS tracker. We will be using the system and other digital equipment to identify every compound owner. If we found out you have a property that you are using either for commercial or domestic reasons and you are not paying tax … we will deal with you,” CG Darboe warned.
He said if individuals are caught, they would be fined and forced to pay interest on top of the tax, they were supposed to pay.
“I urge all businesses to cooperate with us to avoid having issues with us,” Darboe said.
GRA was tasked to collect D15.2 billion in 2023 which represented a growth of 19 percent from the 2022 revenue target.
CG Darboe said the authority as of 31st December has collected D15.756 billion, registering a 4 percent above the target and a 23 percent revenue performance growth when compared to the 2022 revenue performance.
“This revenue performance is attributed to a substantial nominal growth of 36 percent in international trade or in absolute terms D2, 239,480.01 and an impressive 11 percent growth for domestic taxes are an absolute variance of D735, 441,739.75 when compared to the 2022 revenue performance for both departments. Throughout 2023, the GRA successfully implemented a series of reforms and strategies to enhance efficiency, transparency and optimize its revenue collection processes,” he added.
The introduction of the Asycuda World, Darboe revealed, contributed immensely to the revenue performance for international trade.
He said the authority has also established a rental tax office in 2023 dedicated to administering rental income to oversee the growing number of rental properties in the country.
“The rental income tax in its first year collected the sum of D72.32 million, representing an impressive growth of 87 percent when compared to the previous year. He said the authority also introduced an IT solution for excisable goods, telecoms service and refined fuel through a PPP arrangement.
“Also, in 2023, the authority signed another PPP contract for the implementation of the Single Window platform, e-tracking and digital weighbridge, whose implementations are currently underway, and we are hopeful that this IT solution will enhance trade and improve revenue administration,” he said.
Darboe talked about the 2024 reform plans, saying the authority is committed to further reforms and digitalisation to expand the tax base, facilitate trade and enhance compliance.
“We will implement digital excise stamps for excisable goods starting from January 2024 and also introduce fuel marking by March 2024. We are also on the verge of introducing a rental income mobilisation system to aid the collection of rental income tax and improve the compliance mechanisms for taxpayers. A significant milestone in 2024 will be the implementation of the revenue assurance system for the telecoms sector by mid-year 2024, along with the introduction of a web-based integrated tax administration system (ITAS) to automate the domestic tax collection system,” he said.
He said the authority also aims to conduct a comprehensive service delivery survey to gather feedback from the general public, taxpayers and businesses on the services it render with a view of making improvements in its operations and relations with the taxpayers and business community.
Darboe assured the public of GRA’s Board and Management commitment to achieving the D19.2 billion revenue target for 2024.
