By Tabora Bojang
The Commissioner General of the Gambia Revenue Authority GRA, has told a National Assembly investigation committee that an investigation by the Financial Intelligence Unit FIU, has discovered D428, 835, 803.1 deposited in the accounts of one of the companies suspected in the importation and sale of petroleum products from a Russian ship without paying tax.
The GRA boss confirmed to the enquiry that the company, Creed Energy Limited, never paid tax to the authority since its registration in the Gambia in 2021.
Creed Energy Limited is being investigated together with Apogee FZC, a Dubai-based company registered in the Gambia and Ultimate Biege Logistics over allegations that they imported fuel in the country and evaded tax by bribing and corrupting certain officials.
Continuing his testimony before a joint parliamentary committee of FPAC and PEC, Yankuba Darboe said his institution had no prior information about the operations of Creed Energy and Ultimate Beige Logistics despite their registration in the country until it received an intelligence report from the FIU.
He revealed that his office acted on this intelligence report to conduct a “best of judgement assessment” and came up with a decision to apply 2 percent tax charges on Creed Energy which amounted to D8.5 million out of the D428, 835, 803.1 provided to them by the FIU.
Asked if GRA knows what these monies are proceeds of, Darboe replied: “This is all based on the report of the FIU and we believe that they were sales of the product that they have at the depot. We have no issues with the trader’s role but if there is a business, we believe income that is earned from that business transaction should be subjected to tax. So, we applied these 2 percent based on the volume of the turnover provided to us by the FIU. We did this to provoke them to do their books and bring them forward and we compare it. The law has given us that power where we don’t have information from a businessman, we can apply the ”best of judgement” rule.
CG Darboe however explained that the turnovers in the accounts of Creed Energy and Ultimate Beige are classified as revenues that they generated from other trading activities, not necessarily the tax that was due from the fuel depot, because those taxes are paid by oil marketing companies that are lifting the fuel from the depot where GRA officers are stationed on or before 25th of every month.
“We understand that these two companies sold the fuel on behalf of the trader to the oil marketing companies”, Darboe told the enquiry.
He added that the scope of their judgement is limited to the information provided by the FIU and they are now waiting for the companies, Creed Energy and Ultimate Beige Logistics to file their tax returns.
“We believe the best of judgement will provoke them to come forward and give us the accurate income that they have made in the country. It is obligatory on businesses to pay their taxes but as far as these two companies are concerned they were not doing that. They were not relaying to GRA and we don’t know anything about their country sales,” he added.
He also disclosed that there is no record to indicate that Creed Energy was also paying the value added tax, VAT.
CG Darboe however confirmed that they were both issued a tax identification number.
Court case dismissed
Darboe also revealed that the GRA had also filed a motion at the High Court to become a party in Creed Energy’s lawsuits against Access Bank Limited because they believe they have interest in the case and may be affected by its outcome.
He said that the court dismissed their motion and the GRA has not appealed.
