By Foday Moriba Conteh
During a well-attended press conference held at its branch Office on Wellington Street in Freetown, the Commissioner-General of the National Revenue Authority (NRA), Dr. Samuel S. Jibao, attempted to address issues that he said bordered on misinformation related to the installation of Electronic Cash Register machines in business premises of all registered GST taxpayers.
He informed pressmen that the GST was introduced in the country by an Act of Parliament in 2009, which came into full force in 2010, adding that before the enactment of the GST in 2010 the country was having a tax regime called the Sales Tax which includes import sales tax of which Sierra Leoneans who were importing goods into the country were paying customs sales tax of 40 percent which he said was later reduced to 20 percent.
He said that the Sales Tax had some issues of which they were taxing only the business sector furthering that they never had time to make claims.
The Commissioner General highlighted that the intention of introducing the GST was to broaden the tax base to include consumers underscoring that it is not a business tax but a consumption tax that is only meant to be imposed on consumers.
He stated that when the GST was introduced by an Act of Parliament in 2009 and the mandate to administer it was given to the NRA stating that in most cases the NRA was challenged in collecting the tax because they had no proper system in place to ensure that they collect the taxes as they were using a manual system of which receipt books were issued out to shop owners. The NRA boss continued that because of how the institution is structured they cannot sit in offices to administer and collect the tax, so business owners were given the opportunity to be withholding agents on behalf of Government in an arrangement whereby these business owners will do payments to NRA at the end of the month.
Dr. Samuel S. Jibao revealed that NRA had issues with the manual system mentioning the cost of printing the receipts books from Ghana revealing how such was costing the Authority huge amounts of money. He further pointed out that they noticed how some business people were printing receipt books and issuing out fake receipts without the Government benefiting from the expected accrued revenue to have been generated.
The Commissioner General said against the backdrop of all those challenges the Authority deemed it fit to initiate the installation of Electronic Cash Register (ECR) Machines in the business premises of all registered GST taxpayers such as supermarkets, hotels, guest houses, restaurants, bars, night clubs, building materials stores, boutiques, saloons, general merchandise, and other services providers, among others.
He said that when they started installing the aforementioned machines and enforcing their use the threshold of business turnover for those who should use them was pegged at 350 million Leones.
The Commissioner General, however, said according to the 2022 Finance Act the Electronic Cash Register (ECR) Machine which they are using to collect GST of 15 percent is meant for businesses with turnovers of 100 million Leones and above. He stated that businesses within 10 million Leones to 100 million Leones turnover are on a special regime called the turnover regime and are charged 3 percent, adding that also new businesses with a turnover of 10 million to 100 million are exempted from paying the 3 percent for a period one year.
He underscored that the use of the machines is compulsory as provided for by the Finance Act of 2020 and other related legislations of which he said therefore, all registered GST taxpayers are mandated to input all transactions into the machines and generate a receipt for each transaction.
The Commissioner General noted that as per law taxpayers who fail to issue an electronically generated receipt from the ECR machines or other related software for that purpose or prevent the installation of the ECR machines or refuse to allow NRA staff to install the machines, or willfully, recklessly or carelessly damage such machines and systems will be construed as impeding tax administration.
He concluded by calling on all to support the NRA in mobilizing the much-needed revenues for effective State governance.
The Deputy Minister of Information and Communications, Solomon Jamiru who was also intendance used the opportunity to inform pressmen that they had held engagements with stakeholders within the business community, adding that they have looked at the keys issues raised including the closure of shops.
He said that at the meeting they emphasized that as Government they do value the roles the business community is playing in contributing to the economy and that they are part of the process of stimulating growth.
The Deputy Minister said that during the discussions they were able to understand that one major issue was that which has to do with the threshold stating how during the meeting they elaborated on that of which he informed them that according to the 2022 Finance Act the Electronic Cash Register (ECR) Machines are meant for businesses with a turnover of 100 million and above.
He maintained that bearing in mind the sensitivity of the said subject matter at the end of the meeting they were unable to resolve all the issues but stated that they arrived at key resolutions also disclosing how the stakeholders present agreed to continue the dialogue in good faith.
