By Immaculate Wanyenze
Stakeholders are the ultimate beneficiaries of development that arises when the nation achieves financial independence and 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 and other partners like Nile Breweries, Uganda Development Bank and Uganda Development Corporation will be participating in the UG. Economic Forum. The Forum is an annual convening organised by NBS television to bring together different stakeholders to discuss and create practical solutions of the current state of the Economy. It will be a week-long forum running live daily from 5th-9th; 2:00pm-5:00pm on NBS television.
The theme of the engagement, “What Lies Ahead for Uganda ’s Economy in 2022/23,” is set to create discussion around economic transformation, investment and revive Uganda ‘s economy amidst the covid-19 pandemic.
Speaking at the Press launch on Thursday, Joseph Kigozi, the Deputy CEO Next Media Services explained that the UG. Economic Forum will provide a platform to negotiate available opportunities amidst the uncertain economy.
“As Next Media Services, we believe we are giving a ray of hope to Ugandans to who are grappling with increased prices of goods and other post covid effects. This high level debate be providing solutions and opportunities to some of those economic challenges,” Kigozi said of the benefits of the Forum.
For URA, the forum is part of the institution ‘s renewed commitment to embrace partnerships and work with as many stakeholders as possible including media houses to promote an engaged citizenry that will enhance voluntary compliance.
According to Ibrahim Bbossa, the Assistant Commissioner Public & Corporate Affairs in URA, Tax administration is an enormous task that cannot be managed in isolation and thus calls for collaboration to enable URA create value that will contribute to the realization of Uganda ‘s Economic Independence. Engagements like the UG Economic Forum will therefore help streamline partnerships with a focus on strengthening relations and information sharing for increased awareness.
“If you look at the task of tax administration, this financial year there are no new tax policies to bring new taxes on the table. We are operating more less as was in the last financial year and yet we are expected work smarter, to be more efficient to plug leakages in tax administration,” Bbossa said of the need to build partnerships.
He added that this financial year, URA will be collecting an additional UGX4 trillion using the same measures. For URA to succeed, there will be need for more collaborations to bridge the tax information gaps.
