By Joshua Niyonshima
A team of Tax literacy staff from URA courted Kiseka traders telling them that their full taxable potential is not being realized.
The meeting was held at the URA Boulevard offices, to interact with the kiseka trade leaders at a personal level. URA ‘s engagement with these leaders was testament of Kiseka ‘s value as one of the major sources of tax.
The traders told URA officials that there were some unscrupulous people masquerading as URA employees, and collecting tax from them. They also mentioned challenges of interacting with URA systems like EFRIS.
Kiseka remains one of Kampala’s busiest trading centers with over 16 business blocks that can accommodate over 1000 traders. According to URA reports, Kiseka has 263 registered taxpayers and only 44 are filing for taxes. In the FY 2021/22, URA collected UGX 243,413,324 and UGX 200,718,765 during the first half of the current financial year.
The URA team patiently listened to their challenges and suggested solutions where they could.
David Rusoke, the Manager Tax Literacy told traders that URA was committed to conducting business-tailored tax education to suit their tax needs, support traders in the adoption and usage of EFRIS, engage landlords and allot officers to handle any tax issues in Kiseka market.
The Ag. Manager Metro Mr. Joseph Eyangu, also called for more dialogue with the traders as opposed to strikes that affect collections.
Tadeo Mugerwa, the Chairperson of Kiseka traders in response explained that most of traders are non-compliant because they are ignorant of tax processes and systems. He challenged URA to assign staff that will handle their affairs to ease compliance.
“URA should provide specific officers to Kiseka market for purposes of building trust. This will save us from engaging tax agents who charge us highly,” Mugerwa requested.
