Overview:
According to the report released on Monday, 22 May 2023, both tax and non-tax revenue collections fell short of their targets for the month.
Uganda’s abysmal revenue collection record continued in the month of April 2023, with only 89.5% of the targeted taxes collected, which significantly affected the government expenditure.
According to the Ministry of Finance Performance of the Economy Report for April 2023, domestic revenue collections during April 2023 amounted to Shs1.844.68 trillion, an 89.5% performance rate against the Shs2.060 trillion target.
According to the report released on Monday, 22 May 2023, both tax and non-tax revenue collections fell short of their targets for the month.
Of the total amount collected, Shs1.752.95 trillion was tax while Shs91.74 billion was non-tax collections.
“All the three major tax categories registered shortfalls during the month. Direct tax collections amounted to Shs542.45 billion against a target of Shs591.10 billion thus a Shs48.65 billion shortfall during the month,” the report states.
“All the three major tax categories registered shortfalls during the month. Direct tax collections amounted to Shs542.45 billion against a target of Shs591.10 billion thus a Shs48.65 billion shortfall during the month,”
Ministry of Finance Performance of the Economy Report for April 2023
This was driven by lower than planned performance under withholding tax and corporate tax which registered shortfalls of Shs31.06 billion and Shs6.09 billion during the month respectively. This more than offset the Shs7.06 billion and Shs3.53 billion surplus collections under PAYE and taxes on bank interest respectively.
Similarly, indirect tax collections during the month fell short of the target as both VAT and excise duty collections were lower than the target by Shs16.95 billion and Shs12.62 billion respectively.
The underperformance for excise duty were mainly on account of lower collections under spirits, soft drinks, phone talk time among others while the lower than planned performance for VAT was driven by lower collections mainly under beer and cement on account of a decline in sales volumes during the month.
Taxes on international trade and transactions continue to post significant shortfalls throughout this financial year. During the month, collections under this category amounted to Shs 724.95 billion, posting a Shs 90.92 billion shortfall against the planned target.
Government expenditure during April 2023 amounted to Shs2.451.78 trillion, which was lower than the plan of Shs3.302.04 trillion for the month as all major categories performed below their respective plans for the month.
Expenditure on salaries, non-wage recurrent and domestically financed development expenditure amounted to Shs423.76 billion, Shs 810.61 billion and Shs 738.91 billion, respectively during the month.
Spending on externally financed development projects was recorded at 9.1% of what had been initially planned for the month. However, capital expenditures are made upon presentation of certificates by MDAs and therefore does not necessarily reflect the progress of the physical works.