Sierra Leone Tax Validation workshop ends

Business

A one day Tax Report Validation workshop ended on Tuesday 14th December 2010 at the Hill Valley Hotel in Freetown. The workshop was organized by the Budget Advocacy Network (BAN) and the National Advocacy Coalition on the Extractives (NACE), funded by Christian Aid and Ibis. The title of the workshop was “Building a fair, transparent and inclusive tax system”. It attracted Parliamentarians, officials from the National Revenue Authority (NRA), Ministry of Finance and Economic Development (MoFED) the Anti Corruption Commission, Local Councils, Civil Society and the Media. The workshop was organized to analyze and validate the first ever Civil Society Organization study of the tax regimes in the country and to finally launch the Report. In her statement, Christian Aid Acting Country Manager, Kadi Jumu said that tax and development is a major corporate Christian Aid campaigning theme aimed at minimizing the massive financial outflows that developing countries currently suffer by pushing for regulation of financial systems from national to international level, to foster real economic activity that lifts women and men out of poverty. She added that the tax study conducted on the tax regimes, systems and processes is a starting point for them to engage effectively in national level tax in Sierra Leone. MoFED Senior Assistant Secretary, Morie Momoh, said that they were gratified for the complimentary efforts from the civil society to ensure that they raise revenue domestically to finance their work. The Senior Assistant Secretary noted that in 2007 they developed the second generation of the PRSP known as the Agenda for Change which has key government pillars and priorities. One of the priorities, he said is the infrastructure development that the government has undertaken using funds generated domestically and partial funding from donor partners. Momoh raised some of the problems they encountered in raising revenue domestically. He said that his Ministry is ready to provide support with any credible group of civil society to ensure that people get the right message about good governance. Parliamentary Finance Oversight Committee Chairman Honorable Moses Sesay said that taxation is very important because without it a country will not develop adding that without proper taxation government priorities will be difficult to sustain. Parliament he said is now on the stage to call on Ministries and Local Councils to face it and to testify how they used last year’s budget allocation and how they intend to use this year’s budget allocated to them. NRA Principal Economist James Fomba Sandy commended the Christian Aid Report and stated that their findings and recommendations deserve attention. He said that the findings will go a long way to assist NRA to work smoothly in their operations. Sandy assured that they will take the recommendations seriously. In his power point presentation on building a fair, transparent and inclusive tax system in Sierra Leone, Samuel S. Jibao said that tax collection is frequently arbitrary and coercive, especially at Local Council levels. He emphasized that citizens should have detailed information about how taxes are assessed, how much tax revenue is collected and how that revenue is used. Recommendations, suggestions and questions were raised by the participants By Abibatu Kamara

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