By Karamoh Kabba
I am not an economist, but I have a layman’s position on how our second most viable income stream has been utilised under the All People’s Congress (APC) and the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) governments. My reflections also draw on the arguments I am privy to in Dr Ibrahim Bangura’s Central Coordinating Committee (CCC) regarding what he will do differently.
In 2010, when the Goods and Services Tax (GST) was introduced in Sierra Leone, the nation collected Le 246 billion. By 2019, that figure had crossed the one‑trillion‑leone mark.
The DIB CCC think tank members have studied how these two numbers tell a larger story about how our tax system has evolved, how our economy has absorbed shocks, how successive administrations have managed one of the country’s most important revenue instruments, and how, according to the DIB CCC think tank members, Dr Ibrahim Bangura intends to approach GST differently.
GST rarely dominates political rallies, town hall meetings or social‑media debates, yet it quietly finances the city and township roads we drive on, the clinics we depend on, and the salaries of the teachers who shape our children’s future.
Dr Ibrahim Bangura’s CCC think tank members argue that understanding GST’s journey is essential for understanding the country’s fiscal health.
“It is important to understand the foundation years of how GST was utilised under the APC,” they discussed. Legislative records show that GST was introduced in 2010 as part of a broader tax‑modernisation effort.
During this period, the administration focused on building the system from scratch: designing the legal framework, establishing compliance structures, and integrating GST into the national revenue architecture.
Development experts’ position that GST utilisation during these years reflected the country’s development priorities:
* Infrastructure expansion, including city and township roads and rural electrification
* Social‑sector spending, particularly in education and health
* Subsidies and support for decentralisation and local councils
As the impact of global economic shocks hit the government of Sierra Leone, former President Ernest Bai Koroma’s government acknowledged that economic performance in the early years benefited from the iron‑ore boom, which expanded taxable economic activity.
However, the Ebola outbreak and the collapse of iron‑ore exports significantly reduced consumption and slowed GST growth. These shocks affected how much revenue could be mobilised and how it could be allocated, but social commentators and economic analysts note that social‑democratic programmes such as road construction and subsidies for essential commodities like petroleum and rice continued.
The DIB movement agrees that the APC era can therefore be characterised as the institution‑building phase—a period of establishing GST as a credible, functioning revenue stream while navigating severe economic disruptions.
Now, the CCC think tank of the DIB movement is taking a close look at the inheritance and stress test of how GST funds have been utilised under the SLPP.
Top analysts of the DIB movement have access to documents showing that by 2018, GST had matured into one of Sierra Leone’s largest and most stable revenue pillars. It is stated that the SLPP administration that took office inherited a system that was already generating close to a trillion Leones annually.
In 2019, GST collections crossed Le 1.03 trillion, reflecting both administrative continuity and the natural growth of a system that had been operating for nearly a decade.
GST utilisation during this period, according to the documents, has been shaped by a different set of national priorities and global pressures: human‑capital investments, including education and health; public‑sector wage commitments; debt‑servicing obligations, which have grown as part of the national budget; COVID‑19 response and recovery measures; and support for vulnerable households and small businesses.
Debt servicing alone places GST income under serious stress because of heavy indebtedness and pressure from creditors to repay high‑interest loans. But Dr Bangura knows too well that this is not without the paradox that the country sits on enough natural resources bound to redeem its people from poverty and excessive loan obligations once corruption is controlled.
There is no gainsaying that the COVID‑19 pandemic disrupted supply chains, reduced business activity, and strained household incomes. Inflation and currency depreciation further complicated revenue planning. The redenomination of the currency added administrative complexity. These factors influenced both the amount of GST collected and how it was deployed.
The SLPP era can therefore be described as the stress‑test phase—a period in which GST had to sustain government operations, like in the APC era, amid global shocks and domestic economic pressures, but unfortunately did not. Critics argue that this included significant travel‑related expenditures by the presidency, compounded by widespread corruption in government.
Behind all of this lies a deeper issue: the GST gap—the difference between what should be collected and what is actually collected. Dr Ibrahim Bangura has identified that this gap is shaped by informality, weak compliance, limited digitalisation, and the difficulty of tracking transactions in a largely cash‑based economy. “This situation has to change,” he stated in one CCC meeting.
He however admits that the challenge has confronted every administration, regardless of political colour. “It is for the most part structural, not ideological.”
This is not without the argument among hardline APC supporters that the previous APC government had already identified the need for long‑term investment in systems, technology, and public trust. They also argue that the SLPP’s approach only created opportunities for corruption among tax collectors.
The story of GST in Sierra Leone is not a contest between political parties. It’s a story of one administration built the system from the ground up. Another managed it at a much higher economic baseline while navigating global crises. Both operated under economic conditions that shaped outcomes far more than campaign narratives ever could.
Nonetheless, economic analysts argue that the APC administration maintained social programmes and subsidies even during economic shocks. And it is why many people could not understand the logic behind the price hikes for basic commodities. This is because many are reminiscing about the APC’s subsidies and trickle‑down economics.
Meanwhile, critics of the SLPP contend that although GST revenue increased under the SLPP government, there have been fewer visible development programmes funded directly by GST.
A layman economic analyst like me knows too well that nominal increases in GST do not always translate into real gains. Inflation erodes value. Currency depreciation distorts comparisons. Economic shocks suppress consumption. What matters is not the size of the number, but the strength of the system behind it and what the funds can do to absorb global and local economic shocks.
At CCC, we argue that if GST is to fulfil its promise, the country must take several steps: broaden the tax base rather than relying on rate increases; strengthen digital systems for tracking, filing, and enforcement; improve taxpayer education to build voluntary compliance; support businesses to grow, because growth expands the tax base; and link GST revenue to visible public services to rebuild trust.
Therefore, GST is not simply a revenue tool; it is a social contract. Citizens comply when they believe the state delivers value in return. The DIB movement believes that Dr Ibrahim Bangura should re‑examine past social‑democratic interventions funded by GST that the movement believes have been neglected.
GST is not an APC tax or an SLPP tax. It is the people’s tax. The real question is not who collected more in nominal terms, but who will transform those billions into better schools, safer hospitals, good roads and a fairer future for every Sierra Leonean. Dr Ibrahim Bangura says this is what he intends to accomplish when elected.
This is because, according to him, “the evolution of GST is a mirror of the nation itself—resilient, tested, imperfect, and still full of possibility.” The next chapter will depend not on political rivalry, but on what he [Dr Ibrahim Bangura] describes as the “collective will to build a tax system worthy of the hopes and aspirations of the people it serves.”
Karamoh Kabba is a political analyst, social commentator, and member of the Dr. Ibrahim Bangura (DIB) Central Coordinating Committee (CCC).
