By Dismas Nuwaine
It was all pomp and glamour last Friday as the final episode of the Mpa e-receipt yange campaign went down at Motiv Uganda. The event saw the final seven winners move away with a flurry of coveted prizes, including fridges, motorcycles, and shopping vouchers, among others.
This eight-month-long campaign was spread over 14 districts and saw 130 participants emerge victorious throughout the country, bagging several prizes to their names.
Christine Nyakatura, a senior citizen from Tororo, emerged as the bronze winner of the night, taking home a boda boda, treadmill, and a shopping voucher worth Ugx. 1.5 million. She came in the company of her granddaughters.
“When I was called and told I was a grand winner, I thought it was a lie, but here I am, and the world is witnessing that I have won,” said the retired nursing practitioner. “I want to thank the URA team for this session, and may God continue to bless them as they do their work,” she added.
Sempa Henry was having his daily prayers when the Mpa e-receipt team called him to announce the good news. He took to the stage on Friday, beaming with a smile, his face lighting up with an array of emotions—joy—and perhaps a touch of disbelief.
“God answered my prayers while I was still praying. These gifts will change my life, and I am very grateful to the URA for organizing such a campaign,” said Sempa in ecstatic fashion.
Other winners included Brenda Katushabe, Kenneth Ojara, Brain Nadhomi, Daniel Turyahebwa, and Namisi Geoffrey.
Speaking at the awarding ceremony, Commissioner General John Musinguzi stated that one of the major goals of this campaign was to provide clarity on EFRIS as a tax monitoring system and not an individual tax on its own, as some people had believed.
“We thought this campaign would help us to sensitize our citizens and our taxpayers that EFRIS is not a new tax but a technology that’s efficient in collecting the already existing taxes, especially VAT,” said Musinguzi.
He also emphasized that URA was very deliberate with the gifts given out, issuing transformational gifts that were in themselves symbolic of the transformational mark the EFRIS system would make on Uganda’s taxation structure.
