Gambia Revenue Authority (GRA), on Wednesday engaged more than thirty women entrepreneurs registered with GCCI, to equip them with relevant information to improve tax compliance.
The day long forum was organized in partnership with Women Entrepreneurs Chamber of Commerce, operating under Gambia Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI).
The convergence was supported by UNDP through the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs under the project-support to strengthen capacities of national institutions responsible for economic management and evidence- based policy, planning and budgeting to achieve inclusive growth and poverty reduction in the Gambia.
Essa Jallow, Deputy Commissioner General and head of domestic tax at GRA said the seminar is part of GRAs stakeholder engagement strategy to educate and sensitize the business community, taxpayers and the general public on tax matters.
He commended the organizers, saying this is the first tax education forum with women entrepreneur registered with GCCI. He noted that the objective of the seminar was to share with the participants how GRA administer the various taxes based on the revenue laws in The Gambia. “Through this, we believe it will facilitate your tax compliance and reduce both the compliance and the tax administrations costs.”
According to Mr. Jallow, GRA is engaging other key stakeholders such as regional authorities, tertiary education institutions and policy makers in series of programs to deepen their understanding of tax administration.
The seminar also discussed new tax reforms and clarify challenges faced by the Authority and taxpayers in the process of collecting the much needed tax revenues for government.
Mr. Jallow said GRA strongly believes that the GCCI can play a pivotal role in the form of advocacy to influence the compliance behavior of the business community, saying that will go a long way in boosting revenue mobilization efforts. “We also hope that this seminar will strengthen our continued collaboration to support the implementation of government Tax Reform initiatives aimed at improving revenue collection for national development.”
Yahya Manneh, Deputy Director of policy, planning and research at GRA commended the UNDP through the economic management project which is administered under the Ministry of Finance and Economic affairs for providing the financial support for the engagement with women entrepreneurs.
He also thanked GCCI for facilitating the engagement in partnership with GRA to ensure voluntary tax compliance through education. “GRA has been engaging in similar engagement with other stakeholders with the higher education to boost voluntary tax compliancy awareness.”
Mr. Manneh encouraged participants to use the opportunity to clear their doubt by asking GRA technical experts to answer to any question regarding tax and tax related matters to their operation.
