By Jacinta Obore Mirembe
Following the High Court ruling in Kampala that URA was not in contempt of its earlier orders regarding the enforcement of tax levied against three gold refineries and exporting companies, the taxman hosted the executives of the association to a meeting.
The meeting was two-fold: to engage with the dealers to discuss a payment plan and to give them more time to do so.
“Now that the court of law has ruled in URA’s favor, we want to look for a way forward on payment of your arrears and on how we can best facilitate you to do so,” Simon Esunget, the Ag Manager at Entebbe said.
The court, in its verdict, stated that URA had taken steps towards compliance with its earlier orders. The ruling of the court arose after three companies dealing in gold exports sued URA on allegations of being in contempt of earlier court orders.
Bullion Refinery Ltd., Aurnish Trading Ltd., and Metal Testing Ltd. had asked court to hold URA liable for being in contempt of earlier court orders issued on April 4. The trio had argued that URA, despite the earlier court orders, continued to issue assessments to them, compelling them to pay the export levy.
Esunget, in his affidavit, argued that pursuant to the regulations, they computed the tax arrears for all gold exported from July 1, 2021, until March 1, 2023, and issued demand notices to the respective gold exporters, including the three gold companies.
He further stated that some of the companies expressed readiness to comply and started making partial payments on their tax arrears and were paying until the trio of gold export companies challenged the legality of the statutory instrument and obtained a court order.
Andrew Mahaka, the director of GREDA and the representative of the gold dealers recalled that the USD 200/kg rate was arrived at with the consensus of the dealers, and therefore it is a breakaway group that sought a different arrangement. He implored URA to engage all the players to come to a collective agreement and make a commitment to move the industry forward.
“I want to acknowledge and apologize for the unfortunate series of events that occurred after the MoU we signed with you. But I want to assure you that the stakeholders I am representing have been operating in good faith, are looking to streamline the processes, and are ready to make payments,” Mahaka explained.
He added that the recent unfortunate events at the airport were caused by players who had liabilities and had instituted court proceedings, which were dismissed. “The one side skewed towards non-compliance is causing the disorder in the market,”-Mahaka.
In his remarks, Ag Commissioner Customs, Dr. Geoffrey Okaka Owich, informed the dealers that the Commissioner can only grant an arrangement of up to 6 months for payment of arrears. For any installments above that, he advised them to apply to the Commissioner General in accordance with the policy on installments.
Esunget informed the dealers that the outstanding tax would attract interest rates; thus, the conversation should be on how to settle the accumulated arrears.
The dealers concluded that there would be a reconciliation regarding what was outstanding since the weight exported was not in dispute and that business should be done with consideration of the taxes.
