Africa-Press – Lesotho. The Senate has unanimously adopted the Lesotho Revenue Authority (LRA) (Amendment) Bill, 2021 report which proposes to change the name of the Authority.
These developments transpired on Wednesday this week at the Upper House. LRA’s name will change from Authority to Lesotho Revenue Service. The reasons advanced for the name change is that the Authority has a connotation of superiority status whereas the service is about serving the public. That said, this change of name is envisaged to have the clients’ attitude towards the soon to be rebranded LRA changed. Also, this move has been touted as having potential to have the LRA’s performance enhanced.
The Authority is undertaking several initiatives aimed at improving the clients’ service experience. The adoption of advanced technology for clients’ convenience and comfort are but those areas that it is moving towards for enhanced revenue collection and client-service experience. “The Ministry outlined that the object[ive] of the Bill is mainly to make improvements on governance issues of the Lesotho Revenue Authority by among others, clarifying the roles of the Minister of Finance, the Lesotho Revenue Authority Board of Directors, the Commissioner-General and other stakeholders in the administration of the Lesotho Revenue Authority Act, 2001,” reads the report in pertinent part.
Some of the changes within LRA that the Bill intends to propose to include clothing LRA with investigative power to thwart tax fraud and also regularizing auditing of its accounts, a move that will see the Auditor-General auditing their financial performance or appointing an independent firm to carry that task. The other changes
that the report proposes will see the Commissioner-General being now an ex-officio member of the board and a separate Secretary will be appointed. The Senate is yet to pass the LRA Bill, 2021 into law. LRA was established through Act No. 14 of 2001. It is among others tasked with the responsibility to “enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the revenue collection…”
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