By Maimuna Sey-Jawo
The Commissioner General for Gambia Revenue Authority (GRA) Mr.Yankuba Darboe has disclosed that the challenges that The Gambia faced is lack of experience to tax the online businesses unlike Nigeria who is generating a lot of taxes online businesses through a program on the internet.
According to him, as the World is moving toward digitalisation and technology is advancing every day, the GRA will not relent its effort in finding mechanism in place through learning experience from other countries to introduce taxation online businesses. He said this will greatly help The Gambia to generate more taxes for national development.
Mr. Darboe made this comments recently in an interview with Peter Gomez on his returned from WATAF 17th Annual Assembly in Abuja, Nigeria.
He said this was why during the recent concluded WATAF 17th Annual General Assembly Gambian delegation was opportune to learn a lot from the Nigerian experts on how to tax online businesses.
Mr. Darboe acknowledged that the Gambian delegation have learned lot from the Nigerian experiences during the WATAF 17th Annual General Assembly and surely with time, despite the fact that it is difficult to tax the online businesses due to lack of (tax bracket), The Gambia will continue to search for new discovering of knowledge to ensure that taxation online businesses is realise sooner or later in The Gambia as the technology is advancing.
According to GRA boss, the Gambia is one hundred percent ready moving toward tax digitalisation of revenue mobilization. He asserted that right now at the level of GRA, they are working toward moving from ASUDA plus-plus to ASUDA World. He explained that, ASUDA World is a web -based software and once it is in place you can just open your phone or laptop and have access to the system anywhere in this world not necessarily to struggle for a line phone.
According to GRA Boss, currently that is the system GRA is trying to prepare and have support from the African Development Bank to install this system.
He said the experts are already on the ground and over the past one year they are trying to prepare the system. “We are hopeful that by end of 2021 GRA will be able to see the completion of ASUDA world that will give The Gambia a big jump in term of digitalization of our international trade.” Mr. Darboe stated.
Also, he praised the World Bank for supporting GRA to change their system from Gam-Net to I –Tax, which will go a long way to ease revenue mobilization system.
He also lamented the cordial relationship between the commercial banks and the Gambia Revenue Authority GRA over the years.
He said already the digitalization of tax revenue mobilization is in process at the level of the commercials. He also assured that risk associated to tax digitalisation of revenue mobilization will be well secured by a well train graduate attached to I-T unit at the Gambia Revenue Authority.
Talking about the objectives of WATAF 17th Annual General Assembly, and its achievements for the past years, GRA boss said it was to bring everybody on board so that our voices in the decision can be heard at the African Tax Administration forum ATAF which is the Apex body.
