Sierra Leone bans three cigarette brands over tax evasion

By Kemo Cham

Sierra Leone’s National Revenue Authority (NRA) has slammed a ban on three brands of popular cigarettes which are believed to have been smuggled into the country to avoid a recently imposed excise tax, an official said Friday.

Shopkeepers and hawkers have been ordered to stop selling Marlborough, Bond Street, and Empire cigarettes or face confiscation and criminal charges that could lead to imprisonment, said Ibrahim Sorie Koroma, Commissioner of Domestic Tax at the NRA.

The government, as part of the 2017 Finance Act, introduced a 30 percent Excise Tax on sale of cigarettes, which officials say is intended to

discourage smoking, which is characterized as a major source of public health problems. The NRA says importers of these brands have been found to be smuggling their products into the country, thereby causing the government to lose hundreds of millions of leones.

“On the average, we are losing over Le500m per month on those three brands alone. And as it is now, we receive Le1.2 billion from those we collect tax from, which means very close to Le15billion annually on excise on cigarette alone. So we cannot seat and watch to lose that revenue completely,” Koroma said in a radio interview.

He said legal cigarette sellers had lodged the complaints about the smuggling ring and that the NRA certified it.

The Taxman says it is developing a compliance strategy that includes trying to reach and educate tax payers on the issue. It also plans to resort to MoUs it signed with the police and Officer of National Security to help it monitor the country’s borders and businesses.

There are over 100 illegal crossing points between Sierra Leone and its neighbors Guinea and Liberia and, said the NRA, it is impossible for it to monitor all the borders, hence the need for the MoUs.

The NRA, noted Mr Koroma, will also embark on a door-to-door business raid as provided for by law, to check on businesses who defy the directive.

NRA will also offer rewards to the public for information that leads to arrest and confiscation of contraband goods.

“If we allow smugglers to compete with tax payers, they (taxpayers) might want to join the band wagon. So we need to clamp down on smugglers,” stressed Koroma, adding: “I want the public to know that the minimum penalty is Le50million and or five years imprisonment.”

KC/APA