DTD, part of NRA’s Modernisation Plan

In a bid to continue with its modernisation plan and move in line with the expectations of the taxpaying public, the National Revenue Authority (NRA) is presently working hard to setup the Domestic Tax Department by early next year.  When fully in operation, the Domestic Tax Department will see the Income Tax and Goods and Services Tax Departments, being brought under one body, with a Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner, but all under the NRA.  (Photo: Haja Kallah Kamara, Acting Commissioner General, NRA)

The introduction of the Domestic Tax Department is 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.

The introduction of the DTD by next year is in line with IMF recommendations and also in line with the NRA Modernization Plan. The NRA’s Modernization Programme is aimed at increasing effectiveness and accountability in revenue collection, and to significantly improve on the delivery of services to taxpayers and stakeholders. The introduction of the GST in January this year, ASYCUDA within Customs operations in April and the pending DTD are all part of the Modernization Programme of the NRA.

When the two  current domestic revenue generating departments – Income Tax Department and Good s and Services Tax Unit [GST]) are combined,  it will ensure, only two  operational departments will  remain and they are the Customs and Excise Department and the Domestic Tax Department.

In one of series of workshops organized by the NRA, the Acting Commissioner-General Haja Kallah Kamara during a workshop, which was organized by the NRA at Shangri La Complex, at the Lumley Beach on July 29, spoke of the plans to get DTD sand also used the occasion to appeal to taxpayers to support the NRA. She also used that occasion on the 29^th July to call on  Tax Consultants ‘to evolve a form of union that could be a regulatory body  to better collaborate with the NRA in providing better services for taxpayers/tax clients, and increasing revenues for government’.

The introduction of the DTD by next year is greatly expected to increase on the revenue collection function of the NRA. Recently in Parliament, the President, Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma underscored the importance of tax payment to national development and called on people to pay their taxes. President Koroma spoke of the progress we have made over the years when he said, the government is  ‘increasing revenues by broadening the tax base through the introduction of the Goods and Sales Tax, and tackling tax evasion and avoidance through the introduction of the Automated System of Custom Data (ASYCUDA), and tax payer identification numbers…’

The aim of his government, he went on  ‘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  ‘we have been largely successful in achieving our aim.  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…’

As once stated by the NRA Boss, the DTD will be one more success story of the agenda for change of H.E. Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma as it  will ‘integrate different tax bodies; encourage specialization; and significantly increase revenues, and would help our country to become less dependent on foreign donors’

Meanwhile, there have been series of public education on the pending DTD. There have been engagements with Members of Parliaments, who have been supportive to the NRA, especially in telling the people about developments within the NRA.

During a dialogue session held with MPs on the 24^th of September at Bangura Building, Wellington street, Hon. Eric Jumu stated, that a country should build on its structures and that it was encouraging, the NRA has ’involved us in the process of informing the public…we shall continue to be part of the process of informing the public about the DTD…’Similar sentiments were expressed by Hon Moses Sesay, Hon Phillip Tondoneh and Hon Sama among others.

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