Ex-Minister's proposal on the table, beside Jammeh opening fire on him

GRA TASKS GTBANK WITH TAX, DUTY COLLECTION
Amat JENG

Guarantee Trust Bank has been entrusted the role of a revenue collector by one of Gambia’s fastest growing institutions- the Gambia Revenue Authority (GRA). This is the first of its kind in the annals of the country’s public-private sector relations.

In a bid to boost its revenue collection activity more effectively with rapid response to the growing size of tax payers across the country, GRA signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the GTbank, surfacing the way for tax payers to pay their taxes and duties payable to GRA at any of the GTbank’s 13 branches in the country.

Effective 3rd May, 2011taxpayers will be able to pay their taxes and duties at GTB’s branches through a GRA dedicated Teller Point manned by a GRA revenue collection process trained cashier.

Reacting to this giant development undertaken by the two institution, Bakary Sanyang, Commissioner General of GRA, said the process started three years ago, adding that the signing of the MoU marks the starting point of a six-week pilot project with the bank.

However, as the opportunities involved are vast, and that one bank alone would not be sufficient to man all GRA tax payers, the need for other banks to follow suit is in the offing, as he puts it “We have our taxpayers across the country and probably the expansion of one bank would not be sufficient to handle all GRA taxpayers, and we at GRA are calling on other banks in the country to come forward as early as possible to talk to the GRA IT [information technology] department on the matter [singing of an MoU].”

However, this development comes at a better time as much of growth in revenues has been on account of increase in duty and tax rates. As the former Finance minister puts it three months ago “since the establishment of the GRA, there has been a lot of emphasis on strengthening tax administration and improving tax collection.”

This shift is a boost for both institutions, as reforms at GRA are continuing with emphasis on improving its tax database, developing better internal controls, strengthening enforcement capacity and improving the utilisation of information and communication system.

This could be seen as part of the finance ministry’s commitment to tax administration measures to be implemented by GRA in the course of the year 2011. It is part of the commitment the ministry laid on the table during the start of this year. “[We are] exploring the possibilities of using commercial banks in tax collection with a view to facilitating faster collection and reconciliation of tax revenue collections.”

This kind of public-private sector collaboration in revenue collection has become the trend in most countries to improve their tax administration, especially the collection of the tax revenue,” Lekan Sanusi, MD GTB, said, before putting pen on paper.
He further described the signing as a key development in the history of public-private sector partnership, with a view to anbling the GRA to discharge its core mandate of revenue collection more effectively, while utilising a private sector channel to put convenience at the doorstep of taxpayers.

As bank, among the first banks to meet government requirements for banking, MD Sanusi said his bank is committed to make this scheme a success story for the country.
“GTB group has experience, as we have been collecting taxes and duties on behalf of the federal and state tax collection agencies in Nigeria for years.”