On Wednesday, Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) released its half year revenue performance report from July 2021 to December 2021 in which a net revenue of Shs10,163.09 billion was collected against a target of Shs11,063.90 billion.
The authority registered a shortfall of Shs900.81 billion with a performance of 91.86 per cent.
While addressing journalists at the URA headquarters in Nakawa, the Commissioner-General of the Authority John Musinguzi Rujoki revealed that the shortfall was due to covid-19, poor customer care, limited knowledge of URA’s digital platforms.
He added that at the beginning of this Financial Year, the Authority was given a revenue target, by the Ministry of Finance Shs22,363.51 billion which is 16.10 per cent higher than the actual revenue collected last financial year. And as a way of meeting the target in the remaining half, Mr Musinguzi noted that strategic mitigation measures are set to be implemented in order to increase revenue collections and tax to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratio to 14.99 per cent.
He said to further encourage voluntary compliance, the Authority has adopted the use of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) to amicably resolve tax disputes with taxpayers. “Through the ADR mechanism, 3 (three) cases were amicably resolved outside the court process yielding Shs. 75.8Bn in revenue collected for the period 1st July 2021 to 31st December 2021, thus unlocking revenue that had been locked in some of the Court cases with some of our Large Taxpayers.”
Through ADR cumulatively a total of 15 cases have so far been settled ever since the initiative was introduced in June 2020, and URA has so far collected revenue of UGX. 285.8Bn and USD. 10.4Mn.
“This initiative has proved to be very effective in resolving long-standing tax disputes. In addition, it has further improved the relationship between the taxpayers and URA since the ADR is conducted in an unbiased, non-confrontational and cordial environment. In addition, we have embarked on a cost-efficient service-centric approach by listening more to the concerns and being more responsive to clients concerns. We also encourage taxpayers to embrace the voluntary disclosure avenue by doing a tax health check and cleaning their tax account without waiting for penalties,” Mr Musinguzi said.
On strengthening the implementation of smart business solutions of Digital Tax Stamps and Electronic Fiscal Devices, URA is set to implement approved structures to ensure sustainability and expand on the traced and tracked products beyond the current eight products (cigarettes, beers, sodas, water, wines, spirits, sugar and cement).
Mr Musinguzi assured Ugandans that continuous engagement of the relevant stakeholders will also be conducted to reduce the current legal disputes and appeals. “These solutions have grown the revenue contributions from the VAT and LED tax heads. The key features of track and trace capabilities, real-time exchange of production and transaction data, simplified bookkeeping to enhance business monitoring, quick processing of refunds, access to information at a click of a button and a comprehensive view of the business. These are all efforts towards curbing illicit trade and eliminating uneven playfields for taxpayers.”
The Authority has also improved and standardized its contact centre service offering by providing 24/7 customer support through a multi-faceted approach as a way of enhancing client service support. Such platforms include Whatsapp and webchat available on the URA web portal, the URA Whatsapp number, 0772-140000.
The AskURA app is also on IOS to enable Apple users to access the URA office at their convenience.
“These platforms extend self-help services to more persons, especially the Small and Medium Enterprises and all Ugandans both at home and in the diaspora.”
URA also launched the mobile tax office in July to further intensify tax education and outreach services. To date, the Tujenge bus has combed the remote areas in Kamuli, Iganga, Mbale and Soroti, Kampala, Luweero and Nakaseke.
“For the period under review, the total number of taxpayers registered on the mobile office stands at 1,634, and of these, 1,583 are individual registrations while 51 are non-individual registrations,” the Commissioner General said.
“We are expanding our awareness efforts with enhanced public outreach door-to-door outreaches together with the mobile tax to foster tax register expansion efforts.”
Meanwhile, during the period of July to December of the FY 2021/22, over 182,553 new taxpayers were added to the taxpayer register. As a result, as of the end of December 2021, the taxpayer register had 1,966,106 taxpayers, of these, 150,849 were non-individuals, and 1,815,257 were individual taxpayers.
Of those new taxpayers, in the last six months (first half of the FY 2021/22), at least 33,341 of them became valuable taxpayers, from whom Shs13.12 billion was generated.
Mr Musinguzi also revealed that their revenue target for the second half of the FY 2021/22 is Shs12,328.51 billion, which accounts for 55.13 per cent of the annual target inclusive of the accumulated deficit for the period July-December 2021. URA purposed to collect Shs1,919.65 billion in January 2022, of which Shs1,791.55 billion had been collected by the end of January 2022 before final reconciliations.
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