Representatives from Liberia’s government and from TRACOM. Photo courtesy TRACOM.

Liberia has announced plans to digitise its tax collection process with assistance from the local subsidiary of Kenya-headquartered payment service provider TRACOM Services Limited.

Through the initiative, the government aims to boost revenue collection by promoting accountability and transparency in the filing and payment of General Services Tax.

According to the terms of the agreement, TRACOM will deploy its electronic fiscal device management solution (EFDM) to monitor and track transactions and sales records of businesses in Liberia.

The tech solution is made up of two key components: TRACOM’s proprietary Miliki tax management solution and electronic fiscal devices.

TRACOM stated: “Miliki will aggregate sales data from local businesses such as supermarkets, shops, hotels, and other business ventures.”

Molewuleh Gray, Chairman of Liberia’s National Investment Commission, said the tender process for the digitisation of tax collection in Liberia was initiated in December 2018.

“This project is under the auspices of the ministry of commerce and industry and the Liberia Revenue Authority (LRA). Investment is a process. I believe in the next six months, we will be up and running. This project supports our drive for domestic resource mobilisation. And we are very happy it will also create jobs, and opportunities downstream for maintenance services. We are hoping the TRACOM team will work assiduously with smaller service providers to support this project.”

He added that the progress of the project was affected by COVID-19.

Liberia has reported 1,595 confirmed cases and 83 deaths.

“We are behind schedule because of COVID. This project should have been consummated by mid-year (June or July). But because of COVID, there was a slowdown which is why we are just signing today,” Gray added.

Explaining the electronic fiscal device agreement, Decontee King-Sackie, Deputy Commissioner General for Technical Affairs at the LRA said it is one of the organisation’s many programs to help the mobilisation of domestic revenue in Liberia.

“This system is intended to protect two streams of revenue – our goods and services taxes, and our corporate income tax. We believe that the implementation of this project will not only achieve potential revenue growth, but will also facilitate the receipt of data that will help us to clearly understand our economy,” said King-Sackie.