The Ministry of Finance and Development Planning (MFDP), in collaboration with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Tax transition program, sponsored by the European Union (EU), has commenced a four-day Value-Added Tax (VAT) technical training workshop for tax administrators from the Liberia Revenue Authority (LRA) and the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning (MFDP).
The training is currently taking place in Margibi County.
Speaking at the start on Monday, July 31, 2023, the Director for Indirect Tax at the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning, Robert Quaye Dwuye, welcomed the participants and encouraged them to look at measures that can enhance revenue growth within the local economy.
Dwuye added that the Government of Liberia (GOL), through ECOWAS, will in a soonest possible time be implementing the Value Added Tax (VAT) as part of the measures that show understanding of the methodology of Value Added Tax.
He said he wants some of these training workshops and working sessions to be done for Liberia Revenue Authority (LRA) officials and officials of the Tax Policy Division of the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning to enable them to share with one another what can be done within the system in order to be able to generate more revenue for the sector.
Dwuye disclosed that presentations that will be made by most of the experts will show that Goods and Service Tax (GST) has a whole lot of limitations that do not allow for more revenue in the sector to be collected.
“As a member state of ECOWAS, it is upon us to transition as other states are doing, and as much more they’re doing you can see returns on the revenue because of the implementation of the Value Added Tax (VAT). Liberia should be no exception, and that is why, through the support of ECOWAS, we are here today to begin to grab some understanding about the implementation of that process in Liberia,” he said.
Also speaking, ECOWAS Consultant, Munyentwali Gadi, commended the Government of Liberia (GOL) for bringing tax administrators that are into collecting revenue for government to the table for the discussion of the importance of Value Added Tax (VAT) and the impact of the VAT, which will help the Liberian government to collect more revenue than what is being collected.