By: Momodou Justice Darboe
All roads lead to the Coco Ocean tomorrow for the latest edition of the GRA Tax Appreciation Night.
The Gambia’s main revenue collection agency will roll out the red carpet for individuals, institutions, corporate bodies, State-owned Enterprises, among others, in recognition and appreciation of their compliance with their tax obligations.
“One of the reasons why we decided to organize taxpayers’ appreciation event every year is to say “Thank You” to the taxpayers because we all know that paying tax is not easy. It’s a law to pay tax but we the tax collectors have in mind to organize one night to give them[taxpayers] awards and host dinner for them,” stated the GRA boss Hon. Yankuba Darboe in a Q&A with reporters on Monday.
Commissioner General Darboe said the Tax Payers’ Appreciation Night has been growing in magnitude each passing year.
“We do it year in, year out and each year we organize it, we see improvement in taxpayer compliance. But what makes it more important to us is that the President His Excellency Adama Barrow has been attending it in the past years. He has made this taxpayers’ event part of his calendar of activities of the year. He does this because he recognises the important role taxpayers are playing and that is why he made it a priority activity of the year,” stated Darboe.
He revealed that the GRA has broadened the awards categories this year in its broader effort to show appreciation to taxpayers.
“The number of awards will increase this time around as we have introduced new awards. We do a little bit of changes each time to get close to perfection,” CG Darboe told reporters.