MONROVIA – As the COVID-19 pandemic cripples established world economies, and as third world economies grapple with those exigent conditions that hamper tax collections and stimulate such spurious anomalies, a renowned Liberian economist has decided to provide tangible solutions that would spike tax collection and make local development initiatives much probable.
Samora P.Z. Wolokilie is the current Minister of Fiscal Affairs at the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning. His analysis on the current Liberian sorry economic state is entitled: The effects of Taxes on the Economic Growth of a country: The Case of Liberia.
In this latest expose, Minister Wolokolie attempts to evaluate the impact of individual types of taxes on economic growth by utilizing regression analysis. In general, the regression analysis represents a statistic method examining relations of dependencies among dependent and independent variables with the aim to determine the impact of independent variable changes on dependent variable.
The MFDP Fiscal Policy head’s prognostication is accordingly based on entrepreneurs’ complaints on the taxes imposed by the Liberia Revenue Authority (LRA), qualifying some of them as arbitrary.
“With the advent COVID 19, it is important and imperative to come out with some solutions that may mitigate enterprises’ fears vis-à-vis the LRA policies on tax collection. The paper is divided in three sections. The first part of the paper lays the foundation of the Liberian entrepreneurs’ complaints. The second part gives some preliminary answers provided by the Liberian government. In the last part of the paper, some economic growth theories with regard taxation will be discussed,” says Dr. Wolokollie.
The full text and candid appreciation of Dr. Wolokollie’s summation can be appreciated by reverting to this page or hyperlink.
About the Author: Dr. Wolokolie has a Ph.D. and MSc. in Forensic Accounting & Audit from the Charisma University in the Turks & Caicos Islands, United Kingdom. He also holds MBA in Accounting from the Cuttington University in Liberia. Dr. Wolokolie is also currently a third (3rd) year student at the Louis Arthur Grimes School of Law at the University of Liberia. He is currently the Deputy Minister for Fiscal Affairs of the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning, Republic of Liberia He is a Chartered Accountant (CA) of the Institute of Chartered Accountants (Ghana) (ICAG), a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) of the Liberian Institute of Certified Public Accountants (LICPA), a Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE), USA and Fellow Certified Forensic Investigation Professional (FCFIP) of the International Institute of Certified Forensic Investigation Professionals (IICFIP) of Kenya and USA and a Certified Tax Practitioner CTP) of the Liberian Institute of Tax Practitioners (LITP). Additionally, he’s a member of the Liberian Institute of Certified Public Accountants (LICPA), and holds membership with several international public accountants’ associations including the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ghana (ICAG), Association of Certified Fraud Examiner (ACFE), Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) and International Institute of Certified Forensic Investigation Professionals (IICFIP). Dr. Wolokolie serves as an adjunct lecturer of Auditing, Taxation and Accounting at the Arthur Barclay Business College of the Stella Maris Polytechnic and the Financial Management Training Program (FMTP), graduate school, of the University of Liberia and financed by the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning through a World Bank-funded project and Cuttington University Graduate School. He has spoken at various professional gatherings and forums in several workshops and seminars in and out of Liberia. His ability to blend core technical expertise, broad managerial competencies and varied work-experiences with his relationship-building (interpersonal) and leadership skills has underpinned his successful professional spanning over a decade and a half. He has worked in important auditing roles with USAID projects in Liberia, overseen large, multi-site audit and consulting engagements for entities with complex organizational structures and managed accounting systems in both the public and private sectors. As an audit partner, he participates in the planning of audits and reviews, discusses audit progress with Audit Manager and provides technical expertise when difficult audit matters arise. He performs primary and overriding reviews of the working papers and client reports. He can be contacted on Email: spzwolo880@gmail.com +231886519925; +231775236812