The Commissioner-General of the National Revenue Authority (NRA), Dr. Samuel Jibao, has dispelled misconceptions about the Electronic Cash Register machine (ECR) at a press conference held on Friday, 4 March.
He called on the media and civil society organizations to help report the correct information about ECR machines deployed by the NRA to business entities. Dr. Jibao clarified that the introduction of the ECR has nothing to do with the closure of business shops in some parts of Freetown.
“The closure of business shops has nothing to do with the ECR machine; we are just enforcing the 2009 Goods and Services Tax (GST) Act passed by Parliament, and people don’t want to pay tax, ” the NRA boss reiterated.
As part of its revenue enhancement reforms, Dr. Jibao said that in the last four years the Authority has largely focused on overhauling its aging manual system to a contemporary digitally advanced arrangement, stating that the introduction of the ECR machine is one of the results of that effort. He noted that the enactment of the ECR Regulations in 2020 gave rise to the installation and enforcement of the ECR machine across all registered businesses for GST.
According to Dr. Jibao, the ECR machine is a mere calculator aiding the issuance of receipts. He reiterated that the ECR Regulations of 2020 mandate all GST registered businesses to issue receipts from the Cash Register issued by the NRA. “It could be recalled that just a little over two years ago, the threshold for GST businesses was Le 350 Million. The 2022 Finance Act reduced the threshold to Le 100 Million, which means businesses whose main focus is the provision of goods and services with an overall turnover of Le 100 Million are qualified to pay GST,” he explained.
The NRA Boss informed that GST is not a business tax but also a consumption tax meant for the consumers. He continued that GST was introduced in 2009 by an act of Parliament and that responsibility was given to NRA to implement the policy and at that time the NRA was really challenged because they have no proper systems to ensure that they collect money, emphasizing that the NRA then worked in a manual system and they decided to be giving out physical receipt books to traders. This means the Machine is not for everybody and GST is not on every commodity. “This is what the law says and the job of the NRA is to implement the law as it is,” said Dr. Samuel Jibao
Calling on the media to help sensitize the populace about the importance of the ECR machine, the Deputy Minister of Information and Communications, Solomon Jamiru said the media plays a critical role in disseminating information. He pointed out that the role of the media and civil society is integral in the development of every nation, stating that the interface between the government and the media in Sierra Leone occupied a very important part.
He said the engagement with the media was to have a dialogue session and essentially not just to have discussion relating to the closure of business shops but also to use the session as another opportunity to show up appreciation of the ECR, adding that the ECR is relevant not only for cash administration but it provides goods and services and it helps to stimulate the economy “and for us, as Sierra Leoneans we should embrace it” he added.
Speaking to the press on their engagement with traders, the Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, Haja Isata Kamara, said that during their engagement with the traders, what they gathered was that the traders categorically told them that they did not close down their shops because of the ECR machine but that they were afraid because there was a letter going around which had no address, no name, but instructing people not to open their shops. She explained that the traders did not close their shops for the ECR machine but were afraid of hooligans not invading their shops.
BY MOHAMED AMARA GANDO
