(Freetown March 20, 2020). The National Civil Registration Authority (NCRA) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the National Revenue Authority (NRA) at the Authority’s Headquarters’ Conference Room on Walpole Street.
In his remarks before the signing of the MoU, the Director General (DG) of NCRA, Mohamed Mubashir Massaquoi said that the MoU will formally authorize NCRA’s engagement with the NRA. The DG said the National Civil Registration Act of 2016 stipulates that it is incumbent on the NCRA to share civil data with other Government Institutions including the NRA. ‘’Therefore, the NCRA has been engaging the NRA to see how we can collaborate to support tax administration in order to enhance improvement in the revenue collection drive of the country,’’ the DG said.
The DG also informed the meeting that, the role of the NCRA in this MoU is to largely support NRA with digital identification of citizens and non-citizens resident in Sierra Leone, especially those that have to do with tax payments in the country. ‘‘It is very important to support the NRA towards achieving their goal for the benefit of all’’, the DG maintained.
In his response, the Commissioner General (CG) of NRA, Dr. Samuel Gibao thanked the DG and his team and described the relationship between NRA and NCRA as the most important in their tax administration. Dr. Gibao said, the NRA has been constantly informing the citizens of Sierra Leone that the institution will soon go digital. He went on to say that, the NRA is currently undertaking the Integrated Tax Administration Systems (ITAS) which is made for domestic tax administration system characterized by a unique identifier. This means, the CG continued that the NRA will be able to identify individuals the Authority will be dealing with. He said taxation is not done in a vacuum. The NRA is taxing economic activities which are taking place in the country. The CG further informed the meeting that, the NRA will be using the National Identification Number (NIN) as an identifier so that when a particular individual is doing a transactions at the Queen Elizabeth Quay, Supermarket or anywhere, once you key in your NIN, the NRA should be able to track all your activities which makes life very easy for all of us. ‘’Tax administration is about information, law, data and principles’, the CG emphasized.
Concluding, the CG said, ‘‘the NCRA has got the basic information of all our tax payers and individuals in the country, and therefore data sharing is going to be real time because the biometric information sits with the NCRA which the NRA can easily tap into.’’ The CG added that, he believes if there is an information gap in any country no institution can be efficient, and this is what the NRA wants to break. The CG finalized that, signing this document will give the NRA a legal mandate for their systems to be integrated with other credible digital systems.
The event was climaxed by the Director General of NCRA and the Commissioner General of NRA appending their signatures to the MoU document, clearly demonstrating commitment of their actions. The MoU signing ceremony was witnessed by senior staff of both the NCRA and NRA.
© IEC Department, NCRA
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