Finance Matia Kasaija and URA Commissoner General John Musinguzi at the launch of the digital strategy on Friday, October 13, 2023.

Overview:

The URA Digitalisation and IT Strategy 2023/2024- 2026/2026 is aimed at modernizing tax administration and enhancing Uganda's financial landscape.

The Minister of Finance, Matia Kasaija, has officially launched the URA Digital Strategy, with a call to the tax collection body to ramp up revenue collection and save the country from further borrowing.

“I am tasking URA to secure a 20% Tax to GDP ratio within another two years. There is no way a mature country such as Uganda should have to go through the humiliation of borrowing,” Kasaija said during the launch at the URA headquarters on Friday, 13 October 2023.

“We additionally urge you-the URA to facilitate government’s job creation efforts for our youth,”  he added.

The URA Digitalisation and IT Strategy 2023/2024- 2026/2026 is aimed at modernizing tax administration and enhancing Uganda’s financial landscape.

In his remarks, URA Commissioner General John R. Musinguzi reiterated URA’s mission to mobilize revenue for National development in a transparent and efficient manner.

Some of the guests at the launch.

“Uganda can be fully independent when we can fund our budget without asking for money elsewhere. This is our dream, our vision at URA, and this Digital Strategy Launch is a step in the right direction,” Musinguzi said.

“We exist not just to hit the target; however, I do assure you that we shall continue hitting it never looking back, but beyond the target we also know that its our role to grow our country’s tax to GDP ratio,” he added.

He said the strategy is anchored on harnessing the opportunities of technology, improved Performance Management, stakeholder engagements and tax education.

“That’s why we have introduced innovations like the URA Touch Point, the Contact Center and are beefing up on media engagement. We believe that such engagements hold the key to improving voluntary compliance,” Musinguzi said.

“Innovation and research are also core to not only the Authority but also a direct benefit to our partners in policy,” he added.

The URA Commissioner IT and Innovation, Robert Mutebi, said the digital strategy seeks to solve the issues that people have been seeing with the URA service and approach to business.

“We are using technology to improve inclusivity. We have for instance introduced the USSD code *285# that is onboarding many taxpayers who in the past couldn’t self serve with our online platforms. Taxi drivers today are using their feature phones (mapeesa) to pay their advance income tax and traffic tickets,” Mutebi said.

“We are making our systems interoperable in a way that is professional and Centred on the client. Our system up time is 99.9% and that is why we have built the data centre,” he added.