By Prince J Musa in Kenema
Civil Society Consortium on Community Accountability and Service Delivery has on the 25th February 2022 engaged the general civil society membership, top business people, and other stakeholders in Kenema to popularize the introduction of the Electronic Cash Register (ECR) machines by the National Revenue Authority (NRA).
In his presentation, the Executive Director, William Sao Lamin disclosed that, as a civil society consortium, they have thought it necessary to complement the government by working with NRA in getting businesses with a turnover of 100 million Leones and above, to use the machines.
He disclosed that the consortium has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with NRA for three years to help propagate issues of national interest to the people including the ECR machines which he said have nothing to do with petty businesses.
‘’This will help NRA to collect its 15% revenue due to government through transactions recorded by the electronic cash machine application’’, Lamin explained.
He said people are encouraged to ask for a receipt for goods bought and further disclosed plans by NRA to introduce a raffle system in which people with receipts for goods bought can play and stand chances of winning items that will be useful to them.
He said the machines will enable transparency and accountability and at the end of the month, those big investment enterprises will pay appropriate taxes due to the government.
Lamin, however, expressed dismay that while businesses owned by the Indians, Lebanese and other migrants are fully cooperating and are using the machines Sierra Leonean business owners are not complying with. He said very soon NRA will give a deadline for people to get those machines and that defaulters will have to face the law accordingly.
He said the government has a lot of uncompleted projects on roads, health, and education among others, which require huge amounts of funds and he believed it was therefore necessary for NRA to come up with a system that will generate more income for the government.
He further stated that NRA’s partnership with civil society was not against the business entities but a strategy used to ensure transparency and accountability in revenue mobilization for the country, Lamin pointed out that civil society organizations are not only there to lambast government but do support them on issues considered good for the development of the country.
He revealed that certain individuals are moving around the country misinforming the public that the machines are to make people pay more taxes, which is not correct. Lamin said this has nothing to do with politics and called on all to comply with NRA.
The regional chairman of civil society, Augustine Alie Sannoh said they will continue to popularize the cash register machines and encouraged the media to support their efforts.
Copyright © 2022 Politico Online (28/02/22)
