‘GRA established for mobilisation of government revenue’

This remark was made by Yankuba Darboe, GRA Commissioner General, at the recently ended joint session of the Public Accounts Committee and Public Enterprises Committee (PAC/PEC) of the National Assembly, while presenting the GRA report for 2013.

Commissioner General Darboe further informed deputies that the establishment of the authority brought together the former Department of Central Revenue, Domestic Tax and Customs and Excise in order to establish efficiency in tax administration and to reduce the compliance burden on taxpayers.

He said the GRA was created by the Gambia Revenue Authority Act No. 13 of 2004 as a semi-autonomous body corporated to administer, assess, and collect revenue, to provide for the efficient and effective administration of the revenue collecting system and for matters connected therewith.

The oversight responsibility of managing the affairs of GRA is reposed in a board of directors, he added.

To ensure that it provides a clear and consistent policy direction to the authority, the GRA board meets at least once every month, and had set up the staff and established finance and audit sub-committees to support it in discharging its functions effectively and efficiently.

The day-to-day running of the authority is reposed in the Commissioner General and his team, he said.