By Isatou Jallow
The Gambia Revenue Authority, GRA, has made a breakthrough by collecting D4.72 billion from January to the end of April 2022, which is a four-month period.
Yahya Manneh, Director of Technical Service has stated that this year the government of The Gambia had tasked the Gambia Revenue Authority (GRA) to collect (D13.5billion) for 2022 as Annual revenue target.
According to him technical service and excise are expected to collect D7.82 billion and domestic taxes to collect D5.68 billion which will sum up to a total of D13.5 Billion as overall annual revenue target for 2022. This total amount is expected to be collected by the Gambia Revenue Authority at the end of year 2022.
He said “the first four months of the year in 2022 which is more than a quarter, The Gambia Revenue Authority collected D4.72 billion from January to end of the April 2022 against D4.71Billion which means GRA has exceeded the target by about 0.3 percent of 13.79 million that is the overall collection of GRA as end of April 2022.”
According to him, if you compare this to 2021 overall it represents 7percent nominal growth in a single term the revenue has grown by 295.11milion. He recalled that last year at the same period the Gambia Revenue Authority collected D4.43 Billion despite the deadly coronavirus diseases.
Meanwhile, Commissioner General, Yankuba Darboe outlined some major challenges hindering the revenue collection which among them is the Ukraine War that has contributed negatively in the revenue collection.
“Despite the hardship globally but GRA will continue its commitment and dedication to ensure that the task ahead of the authority is achieve for the development of this country,” he assured
He, therefore, seized the opportunity to advise the taxpayers to comply and double efforts to settle their tax obligation as Gambia is a tax base economy.
In addition, he said the GRA does not introduce any other taxes but the same taxes that have been passed over the years, therefore, there is no cause for exaggeration about taxe system.
