By Omar Bah
A Gambian delegation of finance and tax administrators led by Gambia Revenue Authority Commissioner General Yankuba Darboe has commenced a week-long training course on tax administration at Harvard University, United States.
The delegation also consists of deputy CG, Essa Jallow, director of policy and planning Yahya Manneh, and several senior officials from the ministry of finance and the CBG.
The Gambian team joined colleagues from several countries for a specially designed comparative tax policy and administration program at the prestigious Harvard University.
Commissioner General Darboe said the program will be based on comparative tax policy and tax administration, and knowledge sharing from different countries in the world.
“We will be taken through quality lectures in taxation from one of the best universities in the world. We are looking forward to returning home with added knowledge that will have a positive impact in our revenue generation,” CG Darboe said.
He said thanks to the training opportunities his staff continue to benefit, GRA is making great strides in their tax collection.
“In July alone, we collected D1.6 billion bringing our collections for the year to 62 percent of our annual revenue target,” he said.
He said the authority’s digitalisation reforms have also positively impacted on its revenue collection performance.
He said those reforms include level of “other successes also include but not limited to tax compliance from partners particularly the telecom and oil marketing companies.”
He said staff motivation and continued awareness raising on the importance of paying tax has been helpful.
