By Ralph Sesay
The 2017 Auditor General’s report has implicated Kenya and Air France Airlines of evading taxes for foreign travel tickets, which amounted to over a billion Leones.
The Foreign Travel (Ticket) Tax Act of 1975, as amended by Act No 4 of 2004, according to the 2017 report, requires airlines to deduct 10% tax from the procurement of tickets by every person departing from Sierra Leone via ship, aircraft or other means of transport.
The Act also states that a penalty of 15% per month is chargeable where a person collects the tax and fails to pay it to the National Revenue Authority.
The 2017 report noted that between January and June 2017 the effective tax rate of 10% was not properly calculated and remitted from the sales made by Kenya Airlines and Air France.
A re-performance of the calculations revealed that the sum of Le1 billion Leones was not deducted from the sales made by the two airlines and paid through the NRA into the Consolidated Revenue Fund.
The report has also indicted the National Revenue Authority for failing to levy any penalty charge on the two airlines as stipulated by law.
This, the report went on, have resulted in the loss of government much needed revenue and thus deprived the Government from meeting its planned commitments.
Many believed that the Haja Kallah-led NRA had a lot of issue regarding properly getting big businesses to honor their tax obligations to Government. The integrity of tax collectors was a huge issue the new NRA, under Commissioner Gibao, is grappling with.