By Joshua Niyonshima
URA in partnership with the Institute for Social Transformation (IST), supported by OXFAM International in Uganda conducted a two-day public dialogue on fiscal policy reforms, the Markets Act 2023 and taxation awareness in Soroti City.
The discussions centered around awareness on creation of fiscal reforms revenue mobilization strategy and responsibilities of a taxpayer in revenue mobilization for fairness and inclusivity.
During the dialogue, market vendors were tipped on taxpayer rights and obligations, return filing, value-added tax and voluntary disclosure among others. Damalie Nguna, a domestic taxes officer at URA explained that URA operates under a self-assessment regime, thus the need for voluntary compliance.
Her call was echoed by Mercy Okori from Tax Education, who reiterated URA’s commitment to excellent service delivery.
“We always have a promise to our dear clients. We will always be available to serve you. We will keep sensitizing you about the tax. Treat all taxpayers equally without discrimination,” she stated.
Sophie Nampewo, the Finance for Development Coordinator at Oxfam in Uganda, noted that fiscal reforms need to focus on different gender dimensions and income inequalities to avoid tax regressivity.
“There is a need to focus on the trade-offs that have characterized the government’s fiscal and budgetary reform efforts,” she said.
Meanwhile, it was revealed during the engagement that the objective of the market regulations is to operationalize the law relating to the establishment and control of markets in Uganda and to ease the processes of establishing and managing markets by local governments and private persons.
In addition to the market vendors, the engagement attracted participants from the Ministry of Local Government, the local government of Soroti and he business community.
