By: Momodou Justice Darboe
The Gambia’s revenue mobilization chief has said the Banjul Port is the brain of the Gambia Revenue Authority (GRA) as, according to him, no effective revenue collection can take place if the port is dormant.
“If the port is dormant, GRA cannot function fine. Port Authority is the brain of the GRA. If you take a human being’s brain, you are left with nothing because it’s the brain that takes everything and it can make the human being think and move. If the brain is not there… That means the body is useless. I am saying this because if you talk about GRA…Can you have GRA without the GPA? No. GRA will be completely useless without a GPA. If GPA is not functioning properly, it means that GRA will not achieve anything,” said Darboe, adding: “The GRA is divided into two operational departments; customs and excise department which is mainly responsible for international trade. The domestic tax department is the department that is responsible for the collection of domestic taxes. But the collection of international trade and domestic taxes are all derived from the port authority. If there is no import, and no economic activity in a country, how can domestic tax collection happen and if goods do not come in, how can we collect customs duties? That’s why I said port authority is the brain. We must make sure we develop the port.”
Addressing stakeholders in the port domain on Tuesday, Commissioner General Mr. Yankunba Darboe explained that international trade accounted for close to D900M of the D1.7 billion that the GRA collected at January’s end.
“Eighty to 90 percent of that passed through the port authority,” he added.
CG Darboe thanked the management and board of the GPA for bringing all stakeholders under one roof to discuss issues of common interest.
“This meeting has a pivotal role in what we do. It’s good to have together all the stakeholders from time to time. I applaud the GPA management and board for coming up with this excellent idea. This country belongs to all of us. Whether you are a foreigner living here, whether you are a citizen from different institutions, we have to talk, we have to engage. It is the only way we can develop the country,” said the country’s revenue mobilization chief. He continued: “There are problems and as far as life is concerned, there will always be problems. Nobody can tell you that you can solve all the problems in this world. Not at the level of the port, not at the level of GRA, not at the level of any institution. What we can do is to make sure that we identify the problems that we are facing and decide to solve them as we move. As we address one problem, other problems will come but in real-life situations, there are always issues and problems. It is important to have a forum like this, where we will come together as stakeholders and look at what we have achieved, what we want to achieve, and how we approach issues.”