Koim aims to prevent leakages by taking ‘back half of the pie’

THE Internal Revenue Commission (IRC) yesterday launched its work plan for 2020, focusing on improving revenue generation by preventing leakages.
Commissioner General Sam Koim said it was losing half of what it was supposed to be collecting.
“We have a good corporate culture but the challenges remain plentiful,” he said.
“From a tax aspect of things, we believe that we are collecting half of what we are supposed to collect.
“That’s where our challenge is: to take back the half of the pie that is missing. If we don’t take (it) back, we will (increase) the size of the leakage as well.
“So the plan is to prevent the leakages and build the foundations of our tax administration.
“For the past five months, diagnostic was done on areas (where the leaks are). We have invited an external international team to asses which key functions are working. A preliminary report (has been) given.
“From that, we developed this plan. It’s organically grown and we have identified the weak areas.”