Why LRA Wants Media Partnership To Promote Public Voluntary Tax Compliance
By Frank Sainworla, Jr., fsainworla@yahoo.com
The Liberia Revenue Authority (LRA) sees itself as the proverbial “starved cow” which is being over milked and thinks it is time for the Liberian government to increase its budgetary allotment, if the LRA is to collect US$1 billion or more next year and beyond.
Editors and talk show hosts from various Liberian media outlets got to learn about the proverbial “starved cow” over the weekend, when the LRA hosted a training workshop on tax reporting at a local hotel outside Monrovia.
“Media, you are true voices of the people,” said the Commissioner General (CG) of the LRA, James Dorbor Jallah who stated that Journalists are messengers against disinformation and misinformation, who uphold the truth.
Without collaboration with the media, the LRA will not be able to meet its target of raising US$1 billion or more next year and succeeding years to come.
In special remarks at the event, the LRA boss said, “revenue collection is the lifeblood of government’ and that the media is crucial in LRA’s question to achieve its one billion dollars goal.
LRA Commissioner General, James Dorbor Jallah
He informed Journalist that there would be a funding gap in the successful implementation of the government’s AAID development targets which is costed over eight billion US dollars by 2028, if the LRA is not able to collect one plus billion revenues beginning 2026.
He therefore, said partnership with the media is an imperative to promote voluntary tax compliance by the public and underscoring the need to increase LRA’s budgetary allotment, adding that if this is not done, “we’ll not be able to cross the US$1 billion milestone by 2028”.
In a series of high level meetings within the Executive brank of government and the Legislature, LRA authorities have assured that the Revenue Authority is capable of collecting more than one and a half billion in the years leading up to 2028, if is proposing in order for the Revenue Authority to be able to meet the an additional budgetary allotment of US$20.9 million can be set aside, in order for LRA to overcome existing financial, logistical, human resource challenges.
With the current low budgetary support (US$14M) plus the other challenges mentioned above, CG Jalleh said mitigating the leakages preventing boosting revenue collection will be more difficult.
“Can this narrative be changed?” the LRA boss answered in the affirmative saying that, it is possible if the Liberian government step up budgetary support to the LRA , “you can’t starve the cow and expect it to produce more milk,”
A key goal of the two-day taxation workshop was to “empower Journalists to effectively analyze, interpret and report taxation information,” according to the Manager of Communications, Media and Public Affairs at LRA, D.Kaihenneh Sengbeh.
He underscored the crucial role of the media in encouraging the public to pay their taxes and comply with the laws on taxation and said that the goal of such partnership is to build a better Liberia.
According to him, the training was intended to build the Liberian media’s capacity and knowledge about taxation and was intended to deepen collaboration with the PUL and entire media.
“Taxation is a complex subject and effective public relations is critical, it needs to be properly framed and prioritized,” the LRA spokesman stated.
Both Sengbeh and LRA officials who made presentations at the training workshop made it clear that if collaboration with the media is not solidifies, Liberia risks losing billions of dollars in lawful revenues, thus creating room for disinformation and misinformation in the era of the Social Media.
Also speaking during the LRA’s weekend even, Press Union of Liberia (PUL) Vice President, Beatrice Sieh expressed the hope that “partnership between the media, PUL and LRA will remain strong”.
She said “educating the public about taxation awareness is in the supreme interest of Liberia” and that such awareness should be spread nationwide.