By Immaculate Wanyenze
The Commissioner General, John Rujoki Musinguzi is willing to listen to the challenges taxpayers go through in the different business environments as he pushes for greater compliance.
Speaking at the 3-day URA Service Excellence Feedback Session held in Nakawa on Thursday, Musinguzi said that by focusing on listening to clients, this would go a long way in encouraging compliance and demystifying what taxes to pay and taxpayer rights and obligations.
“I have interestingly tried to understand the patterns between high compliance levels and customer satisfaction, these two must go hand in hand, you cannot run with one and leave the other,” Musinguzi said on why URA is focusing on giving excellent services in the journey ahead.
He added that URA also dedicated the service excellence to address the pains taxpayers have as they interact with URA in their businesses inform of assessments, un fair disputes and any miscommunication.
“Whatever it is you are struggling with, this is the week to resolve it and I want to believe that those who came today will give positive feedback in this direction that we came with a problem and we are leaving when it is being sorted ,” Musinguzi emphasized to taxpayers in Nakawa.
Indeed, after opening the feedback session, different taxpayers took to the platform to share their different experiences about URA services.
Turyasingura Monday, a business man in Jinja complained of continuous assessments with no follow up explanation from the taxman.
“My tax assessment has currently shot to UGX 68 million and I am still figuring out on what to do. When I come to your offices the information I get is insufficient, a disappointed Monday said.
Monday ‘s views where not different from Mukasa a businessman operating in Gomba. Mukasa has had a Tax Identification Number(TIN) for 10 years now and still does not know what more to do with it. He advocated for development of forms for every service like Filing returns as opposed to digitizing every service to cater for the illiterates.
On the other hand, Thaddeus Matovu, a Civil Engineer requested URA to issue Tax Clearance Certificates on basis of trust as a way of supporting businesses.
“I cannot get any building contract in any district without a tax clearance. However, if I engaged URA on how much is involved in such contracts and I am monitored to ensure that I eventually pay, I will feel supported,” Matovu suggested.
Other taxpayers’ present told URA management to equip URA officers especially in the regions with diverse tax knowledge to support any taxpayer pains like filing returns, financial literacy for startup businesses and the role of TINs.
In response, Musinguzi assured taxpayers of simplified and reliable convenient revenue services. He cited progressive enhancements made to the different service platforms to ease tax payment like; the upgraded web portal, new web forms, enhanced ledgers and also the new communication platforms like the contact centre.
“You[taxpayers]should expect a consistently high quality service, characterized by ease of access to all our service points, simplified business processes, high level of transparency, integrity and timely feedback in resolution of issues,”he promised.
Abel Mwesigwa, the CEO KACITA challenged URA to partner with other government institutions like the Uganda National of Bureau of Standards(UNBS) in continuous quest of improving tax compliance.
Meanwhile, the Service Excellence feedback session is also part of the Taxpayer Appreciation program where URA honors and celebrates the most compliant taxpayers. Some of the services taxpayers enjoyed were; the Legal pro bono services, Ledger reconciliation, TIN registration, business formalization in partnership with KCCA, URSBA and use of URA service channels (touch points, USSD, WhatsApp, Web chat.
