The Gambia government has set an ambitious and seemingly tough-to-reach D23 billion revenue collection target for the Gambia Revenue Authority (GRA), but the head of the country’s main revenue collection agency is optimistic that this target is within reach if the current collection trajectory is sustained.
During his Monday appearance on Coffee Time With Peter Gomez alongside his deputy Essa Jallow, the Commissioner General of GRA, Hon. Yankuba Darboe, pointed out that GRA’s trend of collection from January to July has painted an optimistic picture for this year’s revenue collection performance.
“In the month of April, the target given to GRA was slightly D2 billion but by the end of the month, we collected over D2.4 billion with an increase of D401 million,” CG Darboe disclosed.
He explained that the GRA built on this gain the following month and then continued to build on the momentum to date.
“In May, we were given a target of D1.7 billion and by the end of the month, we collected over D2 billion. We also have a variance of over D2 billion;D275 million. And in June, we were given a target of over D1.6 billion and by the end of the month, we collected over D1.9 billion with an excess of over D250 million. And finally in July, we were given a target of over D2 billion again but by the end of the month, the amount we collected was slightly above D2.5 billion, almost D2.6 billion,” the GRA boss enthused.
He pointed out that the country’s revenue administration has so far surpassed its revenue mobilization targets by more than D2 billion.
“We have an excess collection of over D522 million. If you look at the January collection to end July, the target that is set is D13.5 billion but at the end of the day, we collected over D15.6 billion, giving us an excess collection of D2.1 billion on top of the target that is set from January to end July,” he further disclosed.
Darboe was upbeat that GRA will be able to hit its target this year also.
“If you look at the overall target for the year, it’s about D23 billion. You’ll realize that we’ve collected over D15.6 billion. So, we are left…August to December, we are supposed to collect D7.3 billion. Now, if you divide that by five months, you are talking about a collection of about D1.4 billion, which certainly, our average collection is in billions, two billion every month. So when we looked at it, we realized it should be D1.4 billion, which we think that we should be able to get our target for this year,” he stated.
The GRA boss pointed out that the billions that the GRA collects are not coming by themselves.
“These billions are not just coming out of the blues,” he emphasized.”These billions are coming simply because we are engaged in a lot of reforms; digitalization. And that is my common phrase. When I talk, I want to emphasize more on digitalization. We are able to get these billions because constantly, we are working on bringing new reforms to the country. And these reforms what they do, they block leakages and bring accountability and transparency in the work we do. And we try to make human intervention lesser. Instead, we bring the digital stage. That is why we are able to get all these billions.”
CG Darboe referenced some of the cutting-edge technologies that the GRA embraced to enhance its collection performance.
“You remember the ACSYCUDA World, which is a great platform that we’re using and it’s doing a great work. In addition, we have a single-window platform, which is also doing a fantastic work. In addition to that we have what we call e-tracking that is all for transit of cargoes, coming to The Gambia and going out of The Gambia going to the warehouses as well as at the fuel depot; the fuel that used to be diverted in the country when they are supposed to go for transit. Now that is a thing of the past,” he enumerated.
