NRA Indicts GT Bank, Others

The Senior Adviser to the Commissioner General of National Revenue Authority (NRA), Ibrahim Sorie Kamara has accused some Commercial Banks including the Guaranty Trust Bank of undermining government.

“There are few of them but the G. T. Bank is notorious for that. I will say it clearly because the law gives us the mandate to name and shame defaulting Institutions,” Ibrahim Sorie states on Tuesday April 28^th 2025 when talking about tax compliance, enforcement, public education and why Institutions and business people must pay their taxes.

He said “When you collect money for the National Revenue Authority within twenty-four hours, the money must be remitted to the Bank of Sierra Leone,” noting that, some of these Commercial Banks are trading with their money to make profit before later sending it to the Bank of Sierra Leone.

He accused some of these Commercial Banks of remitting less than what they are collecting thereby undermining the government.  Kamara disclosed that the NRA has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with these Commercial Banks to collect money from Institutions and business entities on behalf of the Authority and they will pay them commission.  He said “If NRA owes you commission, ask them, they will pay you.” He said no Commercial Bank has the right under the law to hold government money to trade.

The Commercial Banks have monthly target to meet and this is the reason why they are trading with government money. He pointed out that the Authority is coming robustly and effectively to chase them for government money. 

“The treasury bearer rate is forty-one percent (41%). NRA will levy forty-four percent (44%) interest for any single cent that these Commercial Bank fails to hand over to government,” he said, adding that, the Authority will also revoke the powers of collection and blacklist that Institution both locally and internationally. 

NRA he said will penalized the treasury bearer rate plus three percent (3%) premium in addition to revoking their right to collect and blacklist any Commercial Bank that fails to remit government money to the Central bank within twenty four hours after collecting the money. He admonished all Commercial Banks to release government money as quickly as possible to the Central Bank, noting that they are not rivals in the collection of government money.