By Bida Elly David
The National Revenue Authority (NRA) has started conducting a countrywide consultative workshop on a five-year strategic plan for tax collection policies in the country.
NRA has started conducting workshop in other States, and will continue in all the ten States of the country. The initiative is a step to enhance and educate States’ Tax collecting agencies with vast knowledge on the criteria through which revenues are gathered both electronically and manually.
The National Revenue Authority earlier in their yearly plan of action has set to conduct a presentation of the five-year strategic plan in regards to revenue accumulation through internal and border tariffs to boost the recessing economy of the country where her Gross Domestic Products (GDP) kept decreasing every year.
Speaking to journalists on Tuesday after their arrival from Malakal, the Capital of Upper Nile, Marial Dongrin Ater, the Deputy Commissioner for Research and Planning said that their visit deliberated creating awareness aimed at developing a five-year plan for the National Revenue Authority.
“We have just returned from Wau. For the last one week, the NRA has been visiting states. We started with Upper Nile (Malakal), and then we went to Wau. The reason for the visit was first to hold a consultative workshop for the purposes of developing a five-year strategic plan for the National Revenue Authority.
Furthermore, he said that the economic situation in the states after they carried out an assessment was normal and calm and the inhabitants joyfully cooperated and received them with thanks.
“We also had the opportunity to make an assessment of the situation in the state and I can confirm that the situation is stable and it gives us assurance that whatever we do as NRA will be able to happen because with the peace agreement, everything is possible. We want to engage the public and the stake holders because revenues are not for NRA but for the whole country, the institutions or the individuals who are the tax payers and the government. We need a support and we are very happy that the states we have visited are very positive, they helped us with ideas and promised to cooperate” he underscored.
However, he stated that the workshop for the states they visited would soon end marking a step to proceed to other states.
“The workshop will be completed by the end of the month and on Thursday we are expecting the consultative workshop for the states we have not gone to especially the Greater Equatoria and it will be joined by states from Greater Upper Nile and Bahr-El-Ghazal. After one week we shall have our draft for the strategic plan and prepare for the next meeting for validation” he said.
However, Marial said that the workshop concentrated on mechanisms through which states could get acquainted to digitalization system of tax collection and how crucial it would be to tax payers.