The Government of Liberia through the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning and the Liberia Revenue Authority (LRA), over the weekend climaxed Region II national Value Added Tax (VAT) awareness in Grand Gedeh County
Supported by the World Bank, the VAT objective is to broaden the consumption of the tax-base, facilitate tax compliance, create an overall transparent tax system, discourage under-evaluation and smuggling, self-policing, promote neutrality-does not distort economic decision and contribute to ECOWAS regional fiscal integration
It seeks getting citizen’s views, recommendations and key findings on the current Goods and Services Tax (GST) system, and to replace the current GST in consonance with ECOWAS Directives and how to transition VAT with compliance from the Regional Protocol A/P2/7/96 Establishing VAT in ECOWAS Member States as Liberia is now the only country in the sub-region that has not yet transitioned to VAT.
Speaking at the three days awareness, Director of Indirect Tax Unit at the Ministry of Finance and development Planning Robert Q. Dwuye, Jr., Lead Technical Focus person for VAT said the program is intended to create awareness among counties officials, civil society organizations, youth’s, market women’s and business organization travel from the south east can understand the importing of new tax regime called the Value Added Tax system that is currently being used by other west African nations.
“Today we are here to encourage and create awareness across the county by informing businesses operating in Region II about the changes in the current goods and service Tax to Value Added Tax.”
According to Mr. Dwuye, next year 2024, Goods and Service Tax will be replaced with the Value Added tax for the sole purpose of generating more revenue and the expansion of tax base for growth and development in Liberia.
He expressed optimism that with the success of the workshop participants have received the right knowledge about the Value Added Tax (VAT.
He disclosed that inputs from participation, superintendents, Town-chiefs, Religious leaders, petty traders and civil society organizations are key for the awareness exercise and hoped they spread the message across other counties.
Dwuye indicated that the introduction of VAT will enable the government to provide more goods and services for its citizens resulting from the increase in its revenue basket.
He thanked development partners for the positive steps taken and called for more intervention like logistic support for the smooth implementation of VAT in Liberia.
Participants from different working groups, local authorities of the Business community, Civil Society organization, Religious groups, and petty-traders participated in the deliberations and agreed to support transitioning from GST to VAT.
The week-long validation awareness of a Value Added Tax (VAT) was attended by Superintendents, Town-chiefs, Religious Leaders, Petty Traders and Civil Society Organizations from Grand Gedeh, Sinoe, Grand Kru, River Gee and Maryland counties.
The nationwide and Senior Staff from the Ministry of Finance in collaboration with Liberia Revenue Authority with support from World Bank as Development Partner, and The Project Management Unit from the Ministry of Finance.