By Abdoulie Nyockeh
The president of the Gambia Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) Mr. Edrissa Mass Jobe, has called on the government of the Gambia to waive all corporate and payroll taxes for 2 years to encourage investment and improve standards in Hospitals and health businesses, Hotels and tourism businesses, and Agri-businesses, respectively.
He made the clarion call while delivering his official opening of a pre-budget consultation with GCCI, private sector and Government held at GCCI headquarters, on Wednesday and Thursday.
According to him, to compensate for this, Government should apply a Sin tax on Sugar, to help fight the increasing rate of diabetics in the country. The GCCI boss also reiterated the need for government to raise a fund of D100 million to support Small and Medium sized enterprises with non-bank financing in conjunction with GCCI and Social Development Fund.
He said among the proposals that GCCI made is that government support to the community henceforth, should be cash-base to encourage the trickle –down effects on community traders, as well as to encourage big businesses to pay taxes by establishing the Club of 100 both in Tax and SSHFC Payment.
The GCCI president cited his proposed recommendations that government should create an economic zone with Senegal for locally produced goods-poultry, eggs, diary, vegetables etc, by respecting simultaneously the common external tariffs and the ETLS, and also to strengthen the standards Bureau as an important pillars of fair competition, among other things.
He said for them, the private sector-led development is independent on a these considerations in this most important exercise of government-taxation and expenditure.
“I am confident that we would have meaningful partnership to make Gambia Great.”
Jobe further told his audience that the purpose of the pre-Budget consultation meeting, amidst the covid-19 pandemic, was to consult on the 2020 Budget, saying they are cognizant of the existential threat posed by this pandemic to their individual and collective wellbeing both in terms of lives and livelihood.
He remarked that the budget they decided to call the “Covid-19 Budget” is an adaptative challenge that requires them to address not only the immediate impact on society but also the underlying condition of the state of poverty that it found them in. He also pointed out that, at the advent of Covid-19, the GCCI marshaled resource, financial, technical and expertise, to increase the resilience of the health system, but also to galvanize support for the government and WHO let efforts.
The GCCI chief informed that this year, in the preparation of the Covid-19 budget, they have promulgated the NEW IMF, hoping that using the word IMF, the government would listen.
GCCI is not only sincere to this consultation but also to broaden the partnership between government, businesses and community to solve the problems of society, argued the GCCI president.
