URA misses target by Shs458b
Ms Doris Akol, the URA commissioner general. PHOTO BY ALEX ESAGALA
What you need to know:
- Official records show that re-exported goods nearly tripled during the financial year that ended on June 30.
Ms Akol outlined tackling fraud, enforcing compliance and improved human resource as priority areas to reduce revenue loss in the future.
Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) missed its Shs13 trillion revenue target for the ended 2016/2017 financial year by Shs457.51 billion, Commissioner General Doris Akol revealed on Monday.
The less-than-satisfactory collection was, however, Shs1 trillion higher that of the financial year before.
Addressing URA’s first press conference this new financial year, Ms Akol attributed the revenue gap to a “sluggish economic performance”.
The International Monetary Fund in May, cut back the country’s growth in the ended financial year from the projected 5 per cent to 3.5 per cent, citing, among other things, volatility of food prices due to prolonged drought.
The commissioner general said limited credit to the private sector last financial year adversely affected manufacturing, whole sale and retail construction, diminishing domestic revenue generation from taxes.
Constrained aggregate demand in the economy affected companies’ profitability and corporation tax returns in the 2016/17 FY, she said, adding that their counterparts in East Africa, except Burundi, too failed to meet revenue targets.
In Uganda’s case, she said, traders decided to warehouse goods or re-export them to mainly Kenya and Rwanda, which further affected the customs revenue.
Export goods
Official records show that re-exported goods nearly tripled during the financial year that ended on June 30.
Ms Akol outlined tackling fraud, enforcing compliance and improved human resource as priority areas to reduce revenue loss in the future.
