URA beats revenue collection target for first quarter of FY 2022/2023

The Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) has surpassed its revenue collection target for the first quarter of Financial Year 2022/2023.

Presenting URA’s revenue performance for Quarter One in Kampala on Thursday, 27 October 2022, URA Commissioner General John Musinguzi Rujokyi said in the first quarter of July to September, net revenue collections were UGX 5.418.60 trillion against a target of UGX 5.132.17 trillion, resulting in a UGX 286.44 billion surplus.

“This represents a 105.58% improved performance and a revenue increase of UGX 957.80 billion (21.47%) compared to the same period in the previous financial year (July to September 2021),” he said.

According to Mr Musinguzi, domestic revenue net collections were UGX 3.178.77 trillion against a target of UGX 3.043.66 trillion, resulting in a surplus of UGX 135.10 billion.

“This represents a 104.44% performance and a revenue growth of UGX 581.58 billion (22.39%) compared to the same period in the previous financial year (July to September 2021),” he explained.

The URA Commissioner General further explained that direct domestic taxes registered a surplus of UGX 37.49 billion, non-tax revenue posted a surplus of UGX 146.86 billion, while indirect domestic taxes posted a deficit of UGX 51.41 billion.

He said the major surpluses were registered in PAYE (UGX 85.89 billion), casino tax (UGX 17.34 billion), Corporate tax (UGX 14.99 billion), tax on bank interest (UGX 4.69 billion) and rental tax (UGX 1.46 billion).

On the other hand, slight shortfalls were incurred in withholding (UGX 63.29 billion), VAT (UGX 41.28 billion), Local Excise Duty (LED) (UGX 10.13 billion) and treasury bills (UGX 7.51 billion).

“The PAYE surplus is attributed to growth in the wage bill witnessed by companies whose PAYE increased due to increased staff numbers,” he said.

Mr Musinguzi also said the increase in Domestic Taxes can also be attributed to the operational teams’ intensive focused field activities, stakeholder management and improved tax compliance support.

On the other hand, the shortfall in Withholding tax is partly attributed to reduced budget releases for the various Government entities for Quarter one, preventing them from paying some of their suppliers.

He said URA observed increased capital expenditure due to capital investments among their clients as a result of improved economic performance. “Furthermore, the high inflation, which has risen from 6.8% in June 2022 to 10% by the end of September 2022, has resulted in an increase in the cost of doing business, and, thus, high input costs. This has had an impact on taxpayer VAT revenue realised during the period under review,” he explained.