BY MOHAMED M. SESAY
In a presser held on Friday the 4th Match 2022, the Commissioner General of the National Revenue Authority (NRA) Dr. Samuel Jibao, encouraged the Business Community to accept the installation of the Electronic Cash Register Machine in their shops. He said tax automation is the only way to enhance effective revenue generation for the country.
Commissioner Jibao added that the advantage of the automated taxation system is that the machines are programmed to interpret whatever amount of money that is punched in the machine for possible deduction of the GST. Since 2018, Dr. Jibao disclosed that the country’s Finance Act has become more of a welfare instrument other than revenue enhancement instrument due to the continuous reduction of taxes on goods and services. For example, he said the tax rate on Import Duties before 2018 was 20% and 15% GST on flour until 2021, when the Bio Government removed GST on flour and rice.
He furthered that the manual system of charging GST was more a burden to the Business as they had to hire special staff to be doing multiplication and subtraction of GST on any goods purchased. In contrast to the manual system, Commissioner Jibao assured that the ECR Machine reports sales on real time basis. He said the data analytics at the NRA can now be seated in their offices and ascertain how many purchases are made in a week from any shop with ECR Machine. With the installation of the ECR Machine, he also assured that NRA will now be able to effectively monitor the system and pay visit to shops where the machines have been dormant for a week.
“For example if we issue 5,000 receipt book to your shop and only two people buy from your shop for that month and two receipt issued to them, at the end of the month the NRA still have to analyze the same 5,000 receipt that was issued to that shop. And before we are done with the analysis, another month comes”, he said.
Commissioner Jibao instantaneously refuted misinformation that the ECR Machine is for all shows. He reassured the general public that the machine is not for all shops but only meant for businesses with a turnover of one hundred million Leones and above as stipulated in the 2022 Finance Act. He added that if businesses are within ten million to one hundred million Leones, such businesses are in a special tax regime of 3%. He also disclosed that a new business of a turnover of ten million to one hundred million is except from payment of the aforesaid 3% for one year as a grace period.
On his part, the Deputy Minister of Information and Commissions Solomon Jamiru updated the press and civil society activists regarding engagement they held with stakeholders in the Business Community for the closure of shops.
He revealed that the engagement informed the importance for NRA to broaden outreach and sensitization on the ECR Machine. The Minister added that one of the key issues they looked at during the engagement was the closure of shops. He also noted that some people were going against the installation of the ECR Machine to businesses around one hundred million Leones.
After the engagement, Solomon Jamiru disclosed that they reached to resolutions of which one of the resolutions was that Business Community to reopen their shops. He added that they also had a consensus for the need of tax automation through the ECR Machine. Deputy Minister also intimated that they also agreed to refrain from misinformation and incitement around the ECR Machine among other resolutions.
It could be recalled that on Thursday the 3rd of March 2022, Shop owners around the Central Business District of Freetown, closed their shops because of the introduction of the ECR Machine by NRA. This action by the Business Community precipitated the National Revenue Authority, the Ministry of Trade and Industry, and the Ministry of Information and Communications, to engage the Business Community about the importance of the ECR Machine and to reopen their shops.