Addressing the gathering yesterday at Access Bank headquarters along Kairaba Avenue, GRA Acting Commissioner General, Yankuba Darboe elucidated: “The government of The Gambia has been engaged in vital reforms under the leadership of His Excellency, President Jammeh with regard to public service delivery, among other things. In line with this, the board and management of GRA has a host of strategies geared towards trade facilitation and making tax collection effective, efficient, fair, easy and at minimum cost for the taxpayers. Utilising commercial banks and in this case Access Bank has many advantages. It offers taxpayers the option of paying taxes and customs duties at any of the Access Bank branches.
“It eases the burden of taxpayers from the need to travel all the way to Banjul headquarters for payment, thus yielding cost savings. It also mitigates the risk associated with traveling with money to pay at GRA offices. Using the bank’s branches significantly reduces queues that would otherwise be there if all tax-payers were to converge at GRA offices for payment. In its quest to facilitate tax payment, the GRA board and management are committed to extending this theme to all the banks that satisfy our requirements. To this extent, agreement has already been reached to sign MoU’s with two other banks by the end of the year.”
Access Bank’s chief operating officer Isaiah Ailenmoagbon said the signing of the MoU constituted an investment of trust in the integrity of the bank. He said his bank will make the best efforts of which it is capable to deliver on the terms and conditions of the MoU, while proving that the confidence and trust reposed on them is not misplaced.
In his remarks, GRA chairman, Mamour Jagne, said the latest partnership is only the second of its kind following the pilot MoU signed in May 2011 with Guaranty Trust Bank.
“As a revenue administration, GRA is continually committed to improving its service delivery at all levels, and easing tax payments through commercial banks is one of our strategic plan deliverables and in line with government’s reform agenda. Thus, today marks another milestone in that drive and rest assured that this will not be the last.”
]]>
