By Elizabeth Nakiru
The common question among taxpayers has always been the issue of how revenue is used by government, the same audience bracket faces an ease of access to register their businesses, and other services offered by Uganda Registration Services Bureau (URSB).
This, during a URSB benchmark visit to the Taxman, was highlighted as one of the reasons why the Registrations Authority sought to plug gaps, borrowing from interventions used by URA to enhance service delivery to taxpayers. According to the URA Spokesperson Ibrahim Bbossa, he called upon URSB to work with URA since “We believe in collaboration with stakeholders, and can tell the story of accountability to the taxpayers who sometimes feel disgruntled about fulfilling their tax obligations,’’ he said.
URSB was on a mission to acquire knowledge on practices that will attract potential business start-ups to their self-help and convenient SIMPO registry solution. Stella Kakwezi Olimi, representing the Director Business Registration appreciated the role URA plays in society explaining the reason for why learning points are being drawn from the session.
“When it comes to digitalization, we have pushed most of our services onto online platforms even though we still have a long way to go in pushing our services to the grassroots like [URA] has done,’’ Olimi revealed.
The engagement which took place on 3rd November 2022 was facilitated by the Tax Education Unit and Learning & Development at URA offices in Nakawa.
URSB equally collects revenue inform of Non tax revenue and has realized a revenue collection of UGX 57 billion against a set target of 42 billion by the Ministry of Finance in the 2021/22. In order to improve performance and realize their current UGX 75 billion target, diversity of measures including rigorous avenues of mass sensitization through the various methods and channels need to be employed.
During the engagement, participants were exposed to the Tax Education Strategy which is informed by clients’ needs, domestic stakeholders, and revenue mobilization. Their minds were also addressed to its focus on strategic partnerships, simplified processes and information together with multi skilled and motivated staff.
As such, the distribution of content through digital, physical and audio-visual channels stimulates tax education and awareness which improves tax compliance and revenue collection. This can be mirrored to achieve URSB objects.
The session came to a close with an understanding of digital platforms like the Electronic Fiscal Receipt and Invoicing Solution (EFRIS), Automated System for Customs Data (ASYCUDA), the Web Portal, Digital tax stamps, and Instant TINs among other initiatives.
