By Annet Nantongo
URA exceeded the revenue target for the financial year 2022/23 by collecting UGX 57.48 billion extra in the period July 2022 to June 2023, where they registered collections of UGX 25,209.05 billion against a target of UGX 25,151.57 billion, indicating a 100.23% performance. This success comes 5 years later since the tax body last surpassed its target in financial year 2018/2019.
The taxman posted a year on year growth of 16.4% compared to the past financial year with an increase of UGX 3,551.04 billion growth compared to the year 2021/2022 which had a collection of UGX 21.062 trillion and a growth of 12.14%.
This excellent performance disputes the anticipated UGX 2 trillion shortfall that was speculated by several economists early this year who based their projections on the trend in revenue performance as at 31st December 2022.
As the country drives an intensive agenda to grow local revenue mobilisation, URA employed a number of measures such as automated ledger reconciliation, the EFRIS and DTS solutions which greatly contributed to the 20.21% growth, bringing in local revenue to a tune of UGX 16,425.41 billion, surpassing the target of UGX 16,188.51 billion by 101.46%. Domestic revenue posted a surplus of UGX 236.89 billion.
“The biggest contributor for these excellent results was the arrears recovery because URA deliberately engaged the public and private sector to reduce the UGX 4,493.41 billion tax arrears portfolio. In the ended financial year, we recovered UGX 713.47 billion from government and a total of UGX 1,277.92 billion recoveries from non-government players. That assisted in closing the revenue gaps,” noted John Musinguzi, the Commissioner General of URA as he delivered the revenue performance report at the institution’s headquarters in Nakawa today.
In terms of international trade, a total of UGX 9,326.64 billion was collected, against a target of UGX 9,462.70 billion, posting a 98.56% performance. International taxes increased by UGX 892.47 billion (10.68 per cent) compared to the same period the previous fiscal year. Customs collections excelled with a surplus in import duty of UGX 275 17 billion, temporary road licenses with UGX 12.66 billion, and export levy with UGX 3.75 billion.
These results are further attributed to a stable and resilient economy, cooperation of patriotic taxpayers, and enhanced administrative measures.
Revenue also grew due to growth in the taxpayer register which stands at over 3.5 million taxpayers, with 882,286 taxpayers added in the year under review, indicating a growth of 33.70%. Enforcement interventions also recovered a total of UGX 132.77 billion through 14,187 seizures.
Going forward, there are some tax administration policy changes that have been introduced to raise over UGX 29.2 trillion revenue target for financial year 2023/2024. For instance, the Tax Procedures Code Act (TPC) section 40(d) has been amended to waive all interests and penalties for taxpayers who pay all principal tax of their liabilities. This comes after the President assented to the tax amendments bill on Monday August 21st, 2023 to allow taxpayers pay their principal tax arrears before December 30th 2023.
Furthermore, URA will actively engage with stakeholders, provide extensive education, improve staff accountability through performance management, implement digital stamps and EFRIS, enhance the use of data analytics, artificial intelligence, and risk management to identify potential taxpayers, audit cases, and revenue leakages.
