CG Darboe made this disclosure shortly after the signing of the M0U between GRA, FIU and GIEPA held yesterday at the conference hall of GRA in Banjul.
According to the GRA boss, President Adama Barrow will preside over their 5th Annual Taxpayers Award Night alongside the minister for Finance and Economic Affairs and other cabinet ministers and high-profile members of the private sector.
The event is set aside by GRA to recognise the contribution of taxpayers who mostly comply with paying tax or meet their tax obligations and to award them in order to encourage other taxpayers to follow suit.
The award ceremony will be coordinated by a special committee at the GRA headed by Chairman Matty Njie Senghore, deputy director of Compliance and Taxpayers Education Unit.
The award ceremony is expected to be attended by over five hundred people from various sectors including Cabinet ministers and will be presided over by His Excellency President Adama Barrow.
“The ceremony is meant to give the most tax compliant companies awards as a sign of motivation and appreciation so that others can emulate in paying taxes to the state regularly,” a GRA statement said. “The award ceremony has different categories, and invitees are urged to be at the conference hall on time before the arrival of the President and his encourage.
The rationale behind the Awards states: “The main reason for organising this dinner is to show the appreciation of the GRA and the Government to those taxpayers who have consistently paid their taxes on time and do their filings also on time.”
In a related development, GRA signed an MOU with the Financial Intelligent Unit (FIU) of the Gambia and the Gambia Investment and Export Promotion Agency (GIEPA) to boost revenue performance.
Thus, the parties have agreed to provide assistance to one another through exchange of information that is foreseeable relevant to the execution of the parties’ mandates.
In the case of GRA, such information shall include information that is foreseeable relevant to the determination, assessment and collection of taxes, the recovery and enforcement of tax claims or the investigation or prosecution of tax matters.
In the case of FIU, such information shall include data that is foreseeable relevant to the analysis of tax and related crimes for the purpose of investigation and prosecution, conduct of typologies on emerging trends and methods of tax evasion and related financial crimes. It also includes information relevant to The Gambia’s follow-up reports to be filed to the Inter-governmental Action Group Against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA) and any other information relevant to combat the menaces of money laundering, terrorist financing and proliferation of financing and related criminal conducts or activities.
