By Politico Staff Writer
Newly appointed Commissioner-General of the National Revenue Authority (NRA) Ibrahim B. Swaray has expressed his desire to listen to the concerns of the Business Community with the aim of meeting their expectations in accordance with the law.
The new NRA boss gave the impression during a meeting with members of the business community held at a Lumley Beach resort in Freetown on the 30th of August 2023.
He spoke of his intention to remove barriers impeding collaboration between NRA and the business community.
"I have been charged with the responsibility of doing a job that thrives on the use of data which you all have but has refused to give to me, a case in point is the refusal to input sales in the GST machine which is clearly impeding revenue generation efforts,” he said.
Swaray emphasized that one of the reasons for the meeting was to announce his open-door policy and discuss with the business owners the issue of compliance.
Prominent among the issues highlighted by the business people were effecting timely release of containers to avoid demurrage and reducing the burden on the current taxpayers.
They also noted that accessing tax credit returns should be a top priority for the NRA and called for effective communication between the institution and taxpayers.
In response, Swaray promised to address the aforementioned issues highlighted by the business people as soon as possible. He encouraged them to work with him to generate the much-needed revenue to service government programmes in the country.
He is expected to meet with financial and mining entities.
Copyright © 2023 Politico (01/09/23)
