One
of the leading newspapers in The Gambia, the Daily Observer, has been ordered
by the Gambia Revenue Authority (GRA) to close down for two weeks, The Point
has gathered.
A
staff of the newspaper who wished not to be named confirmed the closure, saying
some GRA officials with personnel of the Gambia Police Force came to the
newspaper’s office yesterday afternoon and ordered the staff to leave and the
company to cease publication.
The
Observer staff said the company has 99 employees of which 80 are full time
staff and 19 freelancers.
A
highly placed source at GRA said the closure, albeit temporarily, was a result
of Observer’s non-compliance with its tax obligations.
The
GRA source said the newspaper owed more than D17 million in accumulated tax
arrears as it had not been paying tax for the past several years.
However,
The Point has understood that GRA has made an offer to the newspaper that when
they pay 30 per cent of the D17 million owed, they will be allowed to continue
operations.
The
GRA source said the Revenue House would take “the next step” when the two weeks
elapsed and the newspaper did not pay anything.
The next step, according to our source, is to seek for a court order to
forfeit all the assets of the company.
“Leaving
Observer to continue operation while it does not comply with its tax
obligations is not fair to other newspapers like The Point, The Standard, The
Voice and Foroyaa because these papers try as much as possible to pay their
dues,” the GRA staff said.
Before
the closure order, the GRA source said, the management of Observer was invited
to several meetings to discuss possible ways to at least make a commitment and
work out a plan to pay its tax arrears. That did not work.
The
newspaper company was also served with several sermon letters by GRA for them
to pay their tax arrears but they did not pay heed.
In
addition, the source said, the GRA had tried several times during meetings with
the management of Observer to know who is the principal owner of the company
but to no avail.
“The
GRA will not allow Observer to be operating without paying tax and its
ownership also not known,” the GRA official said.
“Today,
the GRA management had a meeting and it was decided finally that they have to
take a step to temporarily close down Observer. They contacted the IGP to give them some police officers to go with them
to the newspaper to effect the closure.
“GRA
is an independent body that operates with transparency and fairness and the
closure of Observer has nothing to do with the government. We don’t have the intention to close down any
company but all companies must also pay their taxes.”
