COVID-19 has drastically impacted Sierra Leone’s revenue drive with government revenue shrinking due to lack buoyance in the economy as a result of the global pandemic.
This was made known by the Minister of Finance, Jacob Jusu Saffa in his supplementary budget presented to members of Parliament which was later approved.
“Mr. Speaker, Honourable Members, preliminary fiscal data indicates that domestic revenue collected from January to June 2020 amounted to Le2.65 trillion compared to the original target of Le3.04 trillion for the first half of 2020,”Saffa revealed.
He explained that most of the shortfall of Le383.5 billion was recorded in the second Quarter of 2020 when the incidence of COVID-19 infections started rising in the country.
“Whilst revenue collection in Quarter 1 was broadly on target, revenue collected in Quarter 2 was Le310 billion lower than the original target for the Quarter,” he added.
That the shortfall in revenue collected during the first half of the year was due to severe shock to economic activity, general weak tax compliance and delays in the implementation of administrative reforms due to COVID-19.
Adding that the granting of income tax deferrals and relief to businesses as well as allowing importers to use the warehouse duty suspense regime also contributed to the short fall.
“Deferred import GST payments amounted to Le11.3 billion; delayed import duties, Le28 billion; income tax deferrals for hotels, Le4.5 billion; and for mining companies, Le15 billion,” Saffa said.
