February 1, 2021
Galaxy of Members of the Legislative Committee in Parliament
By Mohamed M. Sesay
Honorable Members of the Legislative Committee in the well of parliament, have on the 28th January, had their first pre-legislative hearing on the 2020 National Revenue Authority’s (NRA) Bill.
The reform is intended to amend certain sections of the previous Act, with specific focus on addressing emerging challenges in tax administration, aligning the provision of the Acts to international best practices. This legislative process has the effect of also improving the current National Revenue Authority Act of 2002.
Addressing the Chairman of the Legislative Committee, Hon. Marray Conteh observed that the purpose of the pre-legislative hearing of the National Revenue Authority Bill of 2020, was to ensure that Members of Parliament are going to have a broader understanding of the document so that they could make an informed decision in crafting a good law that would stand the test of time and also benefit the people of Sierra Leone.
Explaining the content of the Bill, the Director of Legal Affairs in the Ministry of Finance Farid Alghali, intimated that the following objectives and goals of the new NRA Bill are covered: to provide a legal framework which reflects the change in context of the authority’s operations to transition from manual to automation; to clearly provide supervisory role of the Ministry of Finance over the National Revenue Authority; to address matters of NRA management and code of conduct by laying a clear distinction between roles, benefits, compensation, among other things. These cited elements are absent or rather not clearly articulated in the current NRA Act.
He said the Bill aims to provide a more predictable and adequate funding arrangement for the authority, by way of accessing funding from direct automatic transfer from the Bank of Sierra Leone to it designated account.
He added that the Bill aims to update the provision in the NRA Act 2002, which he says is getting obsolete and no longer supportive of revenue mobilization.
He argued that this new amendment seeks to increase the capacity of the National Revenue Authority to collect and properly account for government revenues.
He further highlighted the proposed provision that should be changed in the 2002 NRA Act which include but not limited to: ensuring that NRA is under the supervision of the minister Responsible for Finance; the Commissioner General be responsible for the implementation of the policy decisions, regulations and directives of the minister; the deputy Commissioner General be appointed by the Board; amendment of subsection 1 and section 12 dealing with the objective of the authority; amendment of subsection 2 and 12 dealing with Board Membership; amendment of section 8 dealing with tenure of Board Members; amendment of section7 to increase Board Quorum; amendment of section 24 dealing with Funds of the Authority, among others.
When the NRA is amended it is envisaged that the Commissioner General will be responsible for the implementation of the policy decisions, regulations and directives of the Minister of Finance and the administrative and Human Resource policies for the Board of the NRA.
Adding his voice to the pre legislative hearing, the Deputy Minister of Finance, Dr. Patricia N. Laverley, also stated that the proposed National Revenue Authority Bill is to ensure that the country has a revenue authority that is autonomous and meets international best practices, with enhanced capacity to use modern technology in collecting taxes.
She said that the Parent Act was established nineteen years ago, acknowledging that it stood the test of time but however noted that, taxes were not collected on internet platforms during those periods.
The Commissioner General of NRA Dr. Samuel Jibao, also intimated that before the enactment of the 2002 NRA Act, Revenue Administration was done through what he called a fragmented or a decentralized system, wherein customs and the income tax department were separate departments reporting directly to the Ministry of Finance.
He added that the decentralized system of revenue generation at that time did not create much impact in terms of revenue administration, in terms of revenue generation and management of revenue.
He furthered stated that after nineteen years since the 2002 NRA Act was enacted, a lot of ths since the 2002 NRA Act was enacted, ings have changed in terms of the way NRA does business, and the modernization of the NRA operation have also changed.
‘’ Tax administration is actually being done consistent with the law. We don’t tax without the law. So even where we want to modernize our operations, we cannot do it effectively if the law is not there to support us’’, he concluded.mannagement time did not create much impact in terms of revenue administra
