Seedy Lamin Bah, the governor of the Lower River Region (LRR) has challenged all Gambians to adopt the culture of paying tax on time.
He made this remark while presiding over the official opening of a 2-day seminar on Tax with regional authorities and the business communities in LRR.
The overall objective of the seminar was to sensitise and deepen the participants' understanding on their rights and obligation in the process of mobilising revenue to support national development programmes.
The two days event was organised by The Gambia Revenue Authority (GRA) through its Compliance and Taxpayers Education Unit and supported by the French Agency for Development (AFD).
"We are aware of the importance of tax because without tax, it will be difficult to develop this country," Mr. Bah pointed out.
According to him, The Gambia is not well blessed with natural endowments "where we could have tapped other resources for the development of the country."
He lavished praise on GRA for organising the sensitisation designed for district authorities and business communities to better understand the types of law that GRA administers, roles and mandates in national development.
The LRR governor also noted that the government attaches high premium for timely payment of tax to implement various projects in the best interest of the citizenry.
According to Governor Bah, tax collection is everybody's responsibility as government needs to develop.
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For his part, John S.L. Gomez, the director of Internal Audit at GRA, deputising for the commissioner general, said the seminar was meant to engage stakeholders and the public about the mandates of GRA and its role in economic development as enshrined in the revenue laws.
"This engagement is also part of GRA's current Corporate Strategic Plan 2020-2024 and optimises client service delivery for improved customer relation and corporate image," he stated.
"The deliberations by the facilitators will be centered on the Gambian tax system; the accompanying revenue laws; the taxpayers obligations and rights as well as the reforms initiatives implemented by the Authority to enhance efficiency in the revenue collection process."
"Today's seminar is an opportunity to avail the participants to understand the tax laws, processes and procedures governing revenue administrations to promote compliance," he further stated.
"The GRA's engagements with you will be a continuous process as it strives to transform and automate the revenue collection processes to enhance efficiency and boost our revenue collection."
He expressed confidence that that forum would generate remarkable understanding and cooperation between GRA, LRR Regional Authorities and the business community, which he said would go a long way in enhancing voluntary tax compliance, among others.
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