The international forum dubbed; West African Tax Administration high level policy dialogue on Domestic Revenue Mobilisation was opened last Wednesday, 18 September, 2019, at a local hotel in Bijilo on the theme: Setting the Agenda for Effective Domestic Revenue Mobilisation in West Africa.
The event was hosted by The Gambia Revenue Authority through the support of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs.
In his welcome remarks, the commissioner general of The Gambia Revenue Authority (GRA), Yankuba Darboe, said WATAF, since its inception in 2011 has provided a platform for West African tax administrators to cooperate and actively promote improvement in tax administration within the sub region. In particular, he added that the forum has provided support in capacity development in key tax administration areas such as taxpayer education, countering tax evasion, aggressive tax planning, tax avoidance, tax audit and human resources management amongst others.
“It is our hope that the topics highlighted in the programme of activities will be deliberated extensively by the panelists, delegates and participants; and the outcome would set the agenda for the sub region as it strives for effective and efficient revenue mobilisation in the ECOWAS region.”
He also cited that The Gambia, one of the smallest economies in this forum has made good use of the invaluable support it receives from WATAF and other development partners such as the IMF, ATAF, WEC, WTO and the World Bank especially in areas of capacity development and reforms. He added that embracing and implementing these reforms has been feasible in terms of the year- on year nominal growth of revenue collection. “Since 2006 to date, The Gambia Revenue Authority has registered an average annual revenue growth of 10.5 percent.
He added that contrary to public perception, this success was registered without any significant increase in the tax but rather by broadening of the tax base.
He said that WATAF and other development partners have rendered technical assistance to The Gambia, which is aimed at identifying risks in revenue mobilisation and proposing policy reforms that has significantly improved revenue mobilization.
In his officially opening statement, the minister of Finance and Economic Affairs, Mambury Njie, said as WATAF aims to bring together the Tax Administrations of the West African states for the promotion of efficient and effective revenue mobilisation, his ministry was glad to partner and support the GRA in the hosting of “this great event.” “We appreciate the support rendered by WATAF to GRA over the years, especially in the field of capacity building.”
