About 35 participants from tax administrations across West African countries including Liberia, Ghana, Nigeria, Benin, Burkina Faso, and Gambia among others are participating in the ongoing training
A three-day Taxpayers Service Training for revenue authorities in West Africa opens in Monrovia.
About 35 participants from tax administrations across West African countries including Liberia, Ghana, Nigeria, Benin, Burkina Faso, and Gambia among others are participating in the ongoing training, which kicked of Tuesday.
According to a press release, the exercise organized by the West African Tax Administration (WATAF) in collaboration with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and the Liberia Revenue Authority (LRA) serving as hosts, seeks to augment skills of taxpayer service attendants in ensuring effective customers relations.
It is being held on the theme: “Enhancing Voluntary Tax Compliance Through Effective Taxpayer Service”, discussing ways to formulate strategies for the development and implementation of effective taxpayer services.
WATAF Executive Secretary Babatunde Oladape stresses the need for the enhancement of service delivery at tax administrations across the region, saying the promotion of taxpayer education is key to achieving voluntary compliance.
Mr. Oladape says tax administrations should enhance their strategies through making procedures and processes easy for taxpayers to fulfill tax obligations with less cost of compliance.
“For you to get taxpayers to fulfill their civic obligations, you need to provide service. Morally it is compulsory that you treat them right,” he asserts.
The WATAF executive urges participants to acquire the relevant skills being taught at the training to help transform the component of service delivery which enhances the operation of tax administrations.
“We are here because of the passion we have to develop our respective countries; the training is all about helping us to improve service delivery. So please open up your mind, learn and share experiences as it promotes peer education which we highly encourage at WATAF,” Mr. Oladape explains.
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LRA Acting Commissioner General Decontee T. King-Sackie notes that the training will help strengthen the role of tax administrations in the West Africa in promoting domestic resource mobilization efforts.
She says the provision of adequate taxpayer services which includes providing up-to-date information and education is crucial to facilitating voluntary compliance and at the same time provides taxpayers timely assistance needed to enable them meet their tax obligations to the government.
“This effort will be a continuous one, because we believe we need to enhance our combined revenue performance through the improvement and increase voluntary compliance,” she adds.
She indicates that the basic objectives of taxpayer service is geared toward impacting knowledge as a guide to tax law and compliance, including changing taxpayers’ attitudes toward taxation and increasing tax collection via voluntary compliance. Press Release
