By Immaculate Wanyenze
Stakeholders are the ultimate beneficiaries of development that arises when the nation achieves financial independence. Their role is examined by their participation to determine what improvements can be made by adopting modern and innovative mechanisms to collect enough revenue and reduce on the donor dependence.
In light of this, URA has found it inevitable to initiate ways of creating enjoyable working relationships with its stakeholders as part of its total transformation drive. The ultimate objective is to position URA as customer-centric to allow taxpayers to voluntarily contribute to tax.
The URA corporate plan Financial Year 2020/21 – 2024/25 is also premised on the need to promote an engaged citizenry to enhance voluntary compliance by building a taxpaying culture through engaging taxpayers, building productive partnerships, leveraging technology, data and innovative staff.
The task of collecting enough revenue therefore calls for more productive partnerships for Uganda to realise full service delivery and economic independence.
Currently, URA is engaging business leaders countrywide to mobilise their support as influencers, but also listen to the plight they go through in the business environment as they push for compliance.
Earlier the Commissioner General, also led a team of Members of Parliament from the Finance and Economic Planning committee on a fact-finding mission tour of the URA customs border stations in the Northern and Southern regions in Uganda and in the EAC Single Customs Territory where URA has a presence.
The committee, also among other things, got first-hand experience on the struggles faced by URA staff in collecting revenue, progress on initiatives like the One Stop Border Post, Non-intrusive inspection, the Single Customs Territory and the Uganda Electronic Single Window.
The on-going Tujenge bus drive in the different regions is also part of URA ’s tax education initiatives aimed at bringing services closer to taxpayers. Through Tujenge, URA is also able to interest clients in paying tax through simplified tax literature.
All these are initiatives that are part of the many routine stakeholder engagements URA carries out to strengthen its relations and information sharing with partners as well as build increased awareness of service offerings.
Beyond engaging stakeholders, URA has continued to deliver services to taxpayers to include; tax clinics, special taxpayer visits scheduled to keep abreast with clients’ issues at their business premises. The tax advisory visits also aim at sensitizing taxpayers about new processes and systems and to address specific issues relating to compliance. Senior Management staff are usually at the forefront of the visits and they are conducted on scheduled basis. These visits also create a closer touch to taxpayer issues which the bigger engagements may not address.
“Through these engagements, URA keeps abreast with the dynamic business environment and clients are able to share useful feedback about the quality of our services for continuous improvement,” James Abola the Assistant Commissioner Compliance explained during the Mid-Western stakeholder integrity forum.
Since one of the main challenges of compliance or tax morale today is lack of tax education, URA has understood the pains that affect taxpayer behaviours and attitudes and has tailored information according to the respective needs by segmenting taxpayers.
Taxpayers are therefore encouraged to partner with URA to augment avenues for continued engagement, feedback gathering and where necessary appropriate additional networks. The information shared will support URA in designing solutions that will build business capacity and the ability for every taxpayer to contribute their fair share of revenue.
Additionally, paying tax is a collaborative effort by every Ugandan and so URA will continue to intensify tax education so that taxpayers are made aware of their obligations and entitlements.
