Koindu border posts commissioning is tomorrow!!

Mandated by an Act of Parliament, 2002, the National Revenue Authority is charged with the responsibility of mustering domestic revenue to fund national developments undertaken by governments, be they past or present. To an extent, the NRA has helped in reinforcement revenue collection in Sierra Leone. (Photo: PA John Baimba Sesay)

This 2002 NRA Act authorizes the NRA to accumulate both direct and indirect tax revenues. And the level at which the NRA has arrived in this venture is encouraging. For last year alone, the NRA was able to generate over six hundred billion Leone exceeding its revenue target for 2009, and a the AACTING Commissioner-General, Haja Kallah Kamara said during the celebration of World Customs Day, this situation that can be attributed to the commitment of NRA staff in performing their functions, and also to the collaboration the has been getting from its valued taxpayers.

Now, the total revenue collected and banked during (January – December) of 2009 amounted to Le 698.780 billion which exceeded the Authority’s yearly target of Le 671.390 billion by Le 27.390 billion (or 4.1%).The Customs and Excise Department, under whose purview are the customs border posts, actually exceeding its yearly target of Le404.998 billion by Le14.197 billion. And it is because of this encouraging  developments within the NRA, as a result of the commitment  of staff and the support of the taxpayers that the NRA, with support from its development partners, is going the extra mile in making sure that all those areas that should be operational are given the need support. Koindu border posts, not least among the lists of border posts being supported.

And because of the support that the NRA has continued to get from the valued taxpayers, government and DFID among other donor partners, plans are afoot for the Koindu customs posts to be commissioned tomorrow. Indeed, Koindu, a once economically viable part of Sierra Leone shall be hosting government officials and other dignitaries tomorrow, as they shall be witnessing the official opening and handing over by DFID of the border posts to NRA.  Koindu, as we all know, used to generate revenue for government, but for the civil war in Sierra Leone.

But the reconstruction of the border posts in that part of the country was one of the important deliverables provided for in the Project document of the original DFID Support to the NRA Project initiated in 2005. Under that support, a provision of £225,000 was made available for particularly the reconstruction of the Customs Border Posts at Koindu and Buedu.

This is not the only project under the NRA’s Modernisation Plan, other projects  the NRA is undertaken through the Modernisation Programme include;  the introduction of Goods and Services Tax (GST), Customs Modernization- including the Introduction of Automated System for Customs Data (ASYCUDA ++), Income Tax Modernization which encompasses the introduction of Integrated Tax Administration System (ITAS), Introduction of Large Taxpayers Office (LTO) and the Introduction of Information and Communications Technology (ICT), among others.  

 

Koindu border posts will help in Preso. Koroma's 'Agenda for Change'

 

Koindu used to be a meeting point for business people from across West African countries including Liberia, Guinea, and Ivory Cost mainly for trading purposes.  There used to be a regular flow of business in Koindu, through the Koindu international market. But that was before the war that erupted in 1991.

The event, expected to attract officials from government, DFID,NRA and community people will not only herald a renaissance of a once economically viable town, but will help in further reuniting Sierra Leone and other countries, especially those closer to Koindu like Liberia and  Guinea.  It will also be of assistance in ensuring security checks along our borders. Sometimes around last year, a team of officials from the National Revenue Authority, including this writer, visited Koindu to conduct an assessment, in preparation for the commissioning and from a personal standpoint; I am impressed with the work done.

Even community people are looking forward to the commissioning of the posts for  they know with  the opening of the Koindu customs, there is going to be not only  development for the township,  but will improve on the life of  the ordinary man in the area as  economic activities  will once rumble.

When operations commenced fully, and with NRA officials all over, it will help in the revenue mobilization of the National Revenue Authority and such revenues shall be used by government for the provision of social services and to meet other commitments by the government to the people. Not only that with the hundreds  billions of hundreds of Leone collected last year by NRA for government, Koindu will definitely help in increasing  on the amount the NRA has  been mobilizing for the running of government.

Again, with NRA commencing operations in Koindu, there will be the return of the concentrated trade activities that had been in history linked with the area; it will help in encouraging trade and travel facilitation, it will enhance border security, it will protect and encourage local industry, trade and development; and above all, will help in minimising smuggling and increase on revenue mobilisation. The reconstruction of the customs posts in the Koindu area became a major component of the NRA’s development agenda in the immediate post-war period and the five year modernization plan which was subsequently developed.

At present at Buedu a complete customs boarder post with facilities for the Immigration Department, Ports Health & Sanitation personnel, a bonded warehouse, a shed for cargo trucks and two residential houses for NRA personnel had been constructed .At Koindu, 10 houses for junior officers and 2 for senior officers were rehabilitated in addition to similar facilities as had been built at Buedu. With these few words, I say, indeed, the Koindu we used to know is about to get back to its economic potentials.

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