He made this revelation while responding to questions raised by deputies at Assembly on Wednesday.
The Gambia Revenue Authority (GRA), according to Finance Minister, continues to engage taxpayers with tax arrears through their compliance chain on the recovery of arrears.
“On the formation of the taxpayers with tax arrears, 98 taxpayers in arrears cover the corporate income tax, valued added tax, pay as you earn, GSM license and GSM levy, among other taxes.
He dilated that a number of them are on payment plan and those payment plans are being pursued and for some, legal actions are in place which is also on course.
“We have put in place mechanism not only for people in the list but even companies that are not paying their taxes. The Ministry is having a task force that is working with GRA to follow up on this list and also some of the non-taxpayers we have been following; and we are pleased to inform this august assembly that some of the large contractors have now come forward and agreed to pay,” he disclosed.
He added they have a payment plan that they are working with GRA and three of them have already complied and are now going through the various stages of tax audit.
“The renewed tax and revenue directorate is making it mandatory that any application for any government business is only cleared when tax compliance is assured. Also tax audits are going to be extensively followed and the tax directorate is also working with GRA to create a working team that will pursue legal action for long overdue defaulters,” he disclosed.
GRA was faced with digitalisation challenge, he said, adding “but when ASYCUDA World was introduced, the customs on the ports has increased substantially. And the Single Window where they put in physical devices of tracking so that any person carrying dutiable goods will be tracked.”
He further stated that the tax revenue this year has outperformed their target. Thus, the tax revenue collected in 2022 was D11.5 billion, and this year, we are expected to collect D15.4 billion.
