Appointed by President Bio on June 5th 2019 to give new direction to the National Revenue Authority in the new direction government’s plan to maximize domestic revenue generation for fiscal purposes, Commissioner General, Dr Samuel Jibao, in updating the media yesterday proudly reported that, “we are on the path to situating this institution as a modern public institution of excellence in Sierra Leone”.

The press conference, he said, was summoned to showcase the ever-increasing revenue collection since he took oversight of NRA, noting that, the institution “recorded revenue increase by 36% over 2017 in 2018, with the revenue GDP ratio having increased by 1.5% which the NRA DG said is not only historical but comparable with any high performing revenue collection country around the world.

Revenue performance in 2019 is equally impressive, with Quarter 1 collection not only on target but also 51% higher than what was collected in Quarter 1 2017 and higher than what was collected for the whole of the first half of 2017 by Le240 billion.

Revenue in 2018 was Le4.374 trillion, Le1.175 trillion more than was collected in 2017, a variance of 36.7%. Between January to May 2019, NRA has collected Le2.229 trillion as against Le1.633 trillion in the same period in 2018, a variance of Le595.857 trillion, a percentage variance of 36.5%.

This phenomenal growth in revenue Dr Jibao attributed to political support in the form of the single treasury account instituted by President Bio, support from MoF in revenue enhancing Finance Act, NRA tax administration policies and advanced ASYCUDA system at customs.

Challenges include creation of an ICT training lab, more administrative locations, slow recovery of the iron ore sector and slow growth of the economy.
Medium term aims of NRA include sustainable revenue collection, institution of references, better communication strategy and a result oriented institution. Better information system has led to increase in revenue collection.

Dr Jibao clarified that no GST is charged on rice and no tax or rice import.
Tax on flour import has been reduced from 20% to 10%, with PAYE reduced from 35% to 30%.

Dr Jibao maintained that commencement of the reforms will significantly transform collection as well as increase revenue collection strength. They include an Integrated Tax Administration System and the Electronics Cash Register.

He reported that the vibe and ambience within NRA has changed because management cares about staff welfare.

He concluded by stating that although milestones have been achieved in implementing administrative and revenue enhancement reforms, NRA still faces challenges of slow investment flows, exchange rate pressures, slower economic growth and very sluggish recovery of the iron ore sector that he said with concerted efforts by government and the private sector they are working to stabilize the situation.