{"id":14956,"date":"2010-10-15T18:50:50","date_gmt":"2010-10-15T22:50:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sierraexpressmedia.com\/?p=14956"},"modified":"2010-10-15T18:50:50","modified_gmt":"2010-10-15T22:50:50","slug":"nra-impresses-president-koroma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/?p=14956","title":{"rendered":"NRA impresses President Koroma"},"content":{"rendered":"

The President, Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma has stated during the state opening of parliament on 8th<\/sup> October, 2010, that we are as a nation, \u2018increasing revenues by broadening the tax base\u2026\u2019 and this he said is happening through the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax, \u2018and tackling tax evasion and avoidance through the introduction of the Automated System of Custom Data (ASYCUDA), and tax payer identification numbers\u2026\u2019 \u00a0(Photo: Haja Kallah Kamara, Acting Commissioner General, NRA)<\/p>\n

Speaking on the nation\u2019s economy during the state opening of Parliament, President Koroma said the \u00a0aim of his government has always been to simultaneously maintain macro-economic stability, increase revenues, improve international confidence in the management of the economy, promote investment and re-align government expenditure in favor of infrastructural development and that \u2018we have been largely successful in achieving our aim.\u00a0 In spite of the global economic downturn, our economy grew at double the average growth rate for Africa as a whole. IMF and our own figures indicate a rebound of economic activities and further growth this year…\u2019<\/p>\n

The President went further to state, that in the first half of 2010, GST collections amounted to Le98.5 billion, far in excess of the amount collected for the whole of 2009 from the previous seven taxes replaced by the GST.\u2019\u2026 Our reforms in the tax collection system have enabled the Government to increase Sierra Leone\u2019s revenue collection effort to 11.7% of GDP in 2009 and it is expected to reach 13% this year….\u2019<\/p>\n

The introduction of ASYCUDA early this year is seen as a milestone in the development of the National Revenue Authority. This System of Customs\u2019 procedures and processes ensures a fast way of clearing goods from the quay and also leads to improvement in the revenues collected by the Customs and Excise Department of the NRA.<\/p>\n

In terms of revenues collected by the NRA, in 2009, there was a target of Le 668,343 billion and the NRA collected Le 700,328 billion and this was not withstanding the global meltdown that the world experienced. In 2010, there was an initial target of 888.960 billion Leones. This target has been increased to 930 billion and latest figures indicate, over 600 billion Leones has been collected as of September this year.\u00a0 An official of the NRA said, this target will be met since \u2018the NRA has a committed leadership that wants to see the growth of this country\u2026\u2019<\/p>\n

At present, plans are underway for the introduction of the Domestic Taxes Department (DTD) by next year. This will see the Income Tax and Goods and Services Tax Departments being brought under one umbrella. This, according to the official quoted above \u2018is not a new tax but an administrative change from within the NRA. The DTD structure is going to be functional-based and aimed to harmonise operations, streamline accountability, strengthen functional and interdepartmental linkages and promote transparency & objectivity and also will lead to revenue enhancement & efficiency in delivery of taxpayer services. Investigations indicate, this, move is in line with IMF Recommendations \u00a0and also in line with the NRA Modernization Plan, under its Domestic Taxes reform component.<\/p>\n

President Koroma also spoke of the progress he has made over the years especially by \u2018increasing domestically funded capital spending from Le42.5 billion in 2007 to Le206.8 billion in 2010 as at the end of September\u2019. He however cautioned that sustaining this process requires vigorous mobilization of resources by Sierra Leoneans. He therefore encouraged all that \u2018we must pay our taxes\u2026\u2019<\/p>\n

Reacting to the President\u2019s statement on the NRA, Chernor Kamara, a \u00a0business man at Kissy said, \u2018it is good, that the \u00a0NRA has continued to perform, not just to the expectation of government but Sierra Leoneans as well\u2026 this even should encourage NRA officials, especially its leadership to continue with the good work so that we can attain economic independence\u2026 In fact, if you also look at the President\u2019s statement, he revealed that since his election in\u00a0 2007, his government has\u00a0 increased spending on infrastructure and other capital projects from under Le180 billion to over Le450 billion on a new development agenda. This is because an institution like the NRA has been collecting enough revenue for the government\u2019, said Chernor Kamara of Kissy.<\/p>\n

Stay with Sierra Express Media, for your trusted place in news!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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The President, Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma has stated during the state opening of parliament on 8th October, 2010, that we are as a nation, \u2018increasing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":75801,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[673,1],"tags":[1255,5516,1089,1070,5517,833,1055],"class_list":["post-14956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national-news","category-uncategorized","tag-asycuda","tag-chernor-kamara","tag-goods-and-service-tax","tag-gst","tag-haja-kallah-kamara","tag-nra","tag-president-ernest-bai-koroma"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14956\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/75801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}