URA sees revenue growth of 11.5 percent in second half of 2019

By George Mangula

Figures from the period of July to December 2019, say Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) registered a revenue growth of 11.5 percent as weighed against the same period in the FY 2018/19. This was disclosed by the Commissioner General Doris Akol in a press brief yesterday in Kampala.

URA gives a periodic account for the attained revenue performance to the public through press, highlighting key achievements, underscores and the road ahead on how to improve the revenue performance as mandated.

But the 11.5 % growth in revenue of however does not resonate with the set semiannual target for the FY 2019/20 as Shs9,042.01 billion of Shs 9,739.39 billion was collected registering Shs 697.38 billion less.

In her presentation, Doris attributed the revenue performance to unusual growth in revenue targets; delay in implementation of some tax administrative and policy measures like Digital Tax Stamps, gazetting withholding VAT agents and rental tax rates, and the growing use of agent banking which gave a pinch on the VAT collections.

URA will continue to employ measures from the last six months like compliance management, service management, tax base expansion and people management to the next half of the year to realise the estimated figure of Shs10,484.90 billion.

At the same opportunity, Akol took time off to reveal the new 5-year corporate plan which will run from FY 2020/21 to 2024/25. This modification is intended to address the dynamic business environment to effectively deal with strategic challenges.

Irene Mbabazi Irumba, Acting Commissioner Domestic Taxes expressed optimism for the next 4-5 years in spite of the arrears eating into the projections and actualization of revenue targets. We are ensuring that the portfolio of interventions with the general taxpayer; return filing, enforcement measures, Data collection and staffing in order to improve our revenue collections.

 Acting Commissioner Customs Department – Steven Magera on the Customs front also highlighted two interventions taken; “We have improved our visibility on most of our borders. We’ve opened up stations around those accesses in Karamoja-Ngomoromo, Awino Lawi, Namayingo and the same applies around Lake Albert. Secondly, we are improving on our technology and are ready on ground planning to deploy drones to support our border investigations.