The Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) has unveiled plans to hit the Shs22.42 trillion tax collections target in the Financial Year 2021/22.
Mr Johnson Musinguzi, the URA Commissioner General, speaking at the post-budget e-conference on Wednesday, June 16, 2021, said they have re-positioned themselves by redefining their mission, vision and core values, while placing special attention to the integrity of the staff, processes and systems.
“We believe that it’s through this that we shall be able to improve service offering to our esteemed clients, re-build URA’s credibility, improve compliance levels and ultimately deliver Uganda from Economic dependency,” he said.
In order to meet and exceed clients and stakeholder expectations and align with Government frameworks like the NDP111, Mr Musinguzi said URA has rolled out interventions that will be implemented both in the short and medium term measures.
One of them is the Process Management Enhancement, which he said, is aimed at strengthening tax arrears management and recovery, enhancing data analysis through interfaces with other Government information systems to enhance taxpayer compliance. The other is continuing to implement key smart Information Technology business solutions like the Digital Tracking Solution (DTS), the Electronic Fiscal Receipting and Invoicing Solution (EFRIS), enforcing enhanced licensing requirements for clearing and tax agents and improving detection of smugglers using non-intrusive inspection equipment.
The URA boss said they intend to improve Information Technology (IT) reliability, security and integration to improve operational practices by adopting the Integrated Solution for Tax Administration (ISTA) to transform domestic taxes business processes (integrated URA) by providing a suitable solution and working environment that meets the ever-changing client needs and optimizes revenue yields while being cost efficient in tax administration.
Mr Musinguzi said URA is reviewing the scope of tax education, simplification and institution of mobile taxpayer services.
This will include among others; mobile tax offices, E-learning portal for clients to deliver and administer self-paced hands on training, investment in URA TV to increase the virtual reach to clients, secondary school tax curriculum.
URA will also work with Civil Society and other Government MDAs to efficiently and effectively deliver tax education to the population and use of social media platforms to reach out and educate the public on taxation.
Musinguzi said URA will engage stakeholders whom he said are very crucial during taxpayer education, revenue mobilisation, tax policy formulation process among others.
He added that they will support Tax Base Research especially in areas of new revenue streams and policies such as Green taxes, Digital economy – Digitax, land, mining, oil and gas, property, environment among others.
URA will also harmonize customs procedures and systems to improve cross border trade, collaboration between government agencies, clearance time, reduce cost of doing business, build a robust international trade risk management system that will leverage on re-engineered and automated processes making the international supply chain more secure by managing risks, rewarding compliance, facilitating trade and enhancing revenue generation.
Improving Governance, according to Musinguzi, will entail among others, developing the desired URA staff culture, Integrity enhancement programme implementation, Structural review and functional alignment, (increase in staff numbers by 600 and above to improve on URA’s footprint).
“We shall strive to put our scarce resources to optimal use by ensuring financial prudence at all times so as to derive maximum outputs. Our desire is to raise at least 1% of GDP from Domestic resources on an annual basis. We call upon all Ugandans to join us on this journey to economic independency,” he said.
The two day post-budget e-conference was organized by URA in partnership with the Ministry of Finance Planning and Economic Development under the Theme: “Sustainable Industrialization for Inclusive Growth, Employment and Wealth Creation”.