By Ramatoulie Jawo
Yankuba Darboe, the Commissioner General of the Gambia Revenue Authority (GRA) revealed that despite challenges, his institution was able to collect D12.78 billion in 2022.
He said the government of the Gambia was forced to grant fuel subsidies in excess of D1.6 billion of what would have counted as part of GRA’s collection but says was done to ease the burden of ordinary Gambians
“in addition to this, tax expenditure as of December 2022 amounted to D4.76 billion, or 4% of GDP, of which duty waivers constituted D2.89 billion and tax incentives granted through special investment certificate from GEIPA amounted to D256.7 million
“These various tax expenditures programs have paid revenue to GDP at 11.1% instead of the actual 15.2% which would have put the Gambia around the regional average. Despite these challenges, it is my pleasure to report that in the 2022 financial year, GRA collected the sum of D12.78 billion, exceeding the target by 0.3%. This revenue performance represents the marginal growth of 0.3 percent over the 2021 revenue performance,” he said.
The GRA Director General made these remarks at his institution’s 5th Taxpayer’s Award Ceremony, where thirty-one Taxpayers, businesses and individuals were awarded for being tax compliant.