By: Malanding Darboe & Haddy Touray
Following the successful hosting of the 7th Edition of the GRA Taxpayers’ Awards Night at the Coco Ocean resort recently, the country’s main revenue mobilization agency organized yet another befitting ceremony to recognize and appreciate more than 30 individuals and corporate entities.
The Commissioner General of the GRA, Hon. Yankuba Darboe, expressed optimism that the second round of awards will serve as an encouragement to the recipients to do more and better so that when the next taxpayers’ awards night comes, they will mount the podium to receive prestigious awards from the Gambian leader.
He expressed GRA’s appreciation to the awardees for their tax compliance but spurred them to upscale their efforts in meeting their tax obligations.
Darboe said the GRA will not relent in organizing annual taxpayers award events to recognize the most tax-compliant individuals and entities. The raison deter of the awards, he went on, is to encourage voluntary tax compliance for enhanced revenue generation for the Government.
The GRA boss explained that 33 companies and individuals have been selected from the over 600 active companies for the awards, describing the recipients as worthy winners.
CG Darboe acknowledged that the cooperation of both the winners and runners-up in fulfilling their tax obligations in time enabled the GRA to hit its 2024 revenue target.
He explained that the initial plan was to present the awards to the winners at the GRA Awards Night but it was derailed by time constraint.
He assured taxpayers of GRA’s willingness to collaborate with them in a mutually reinforcing manner.
“We will continue to cooperate and collaborate and have an excellent working relationship to ensure massive voluntary tax payment, which is the ultimate objective of organizing the annual taxpayers,” CG Darboe stated.
For his part, the Chairman of the GRA Board of Directors, Dawda Ndure, hailed the leadership of the GRA for introducing numerous reforms that positively impacted revenue collection. He further praised CG Darboe for his strategic leadership in GRA’s digital transformative journey.
Board chair Ndure encouraged taxpayers to honour their tax obligation, which, he described, as a key to national development.
He commended the runners-up and encouraged them to ramp up their efforts so that next year, they will mount the podium at the GRA Awards Night.
