By Mustapha Jallow
Yankuba Darboe, the Commissioner General of the Gambia Revenue Authority (GRA) on Tuesday disclosed reform plans that seek to introduce another web-based system known as Integrated Tax Administration System (ITAS) aimed to support ASYCUDA-World’s efforts in tackling revenue leakages.
“The digital system {ASYCUDA} has helped in addressing leakages which were unveiled in the previous manual system. And since the establishment of ASYCUDA-World, more revenue has been collected compared to the years before,’’ he said.
On equal footing, Darboe added: “We are also introducing ITAS, which will be replacing Gam-tax net, so to join the fight in reducing or blocking some of the leakages within the revenue base. This is part of the reform plans by introducing new systems, so to help minimize the leakages and increases efficiency within the system to ensure we collect more revenue.’’
Darboe made this statement at GRA’s end-of-year press conference, where he highlighted the achievements, challenges registered by the authority in 2023 and its plans for 2024.
The Gambia government since tasked the GRA to collect over D19 billion in 2024, a significant rise from last year’s D15 billion. The authority so far 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.
According to Darboe, ASYCUDA-World is a tool the authority uses in the international {trade} revenue collection. He added that it is so efficient that some of the leakages in the international trade – were blocked.
“If it is not 100 percent but at least 95 percent, and which resulted to additional of D2.2 billion that we have collected so far. So, it is because of the systems that we introduced brought the elimination of some of the leakages,’’ he added.
He said: “We have gone up to billions in collections now but we still need support in terms of sensitizing the public.’’
Meanwhile, Darboe expressed gratitude to their stakeholders, including the business community and government agencies for the cooperation and support over the years. He encouraged the media to continue fulfilling its role in disseminating information and fostering understanding about tax obligations, which he added has been instrumental in achieving their goals.
Importantly, he said the system has helped in reducing cases of indiscipline such as misappropriation of funds and among other issues, enabling the authority to track revenue intake.
