Government to audit telecom firms, banks for tax

Kampala. Government has resolved to audit telecom companies and all commercial banks to ascertain their levels of tax compliance.
Mr Matia Kasaija, the Minister of Finance, said this is one of the tax revenue measures to foster compliance in the 2018/2019 Financial Year.

“We have realised that some of these entities have been under declaring their collection, which has been affecting our revenues,” Mr Kasaija said in a telephone interview yesterday.
He said the government has already procured equipment that will be used to monitor income and expenditure levels of telecoms and banks.

The minister declined to reveal the estimated amount of money lost so far as a result of this malpractice.
By press time, Daily Monitor was yet to establish current actual tax collections from telecoms and banks.

Also to be audited are those operating unregistered real estates, including those with undeclared rental premises.
“We are already doing a survey on rent tax, many people have not declared their premises that qualify for this tax,” Mr Kasaija said.

Rental tax
He warned that if one is found with rented property and he or she has not been remitting the required tax, they risk unpredictable consequences.
“Rental tax is paid by the owners of the premises and not the tenants,” Mr Kasaija said.

The government also considers expediting amendments of the procurement laws by proposing amendments in the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Act.
This, according to Mr Kasaija, will ensure timely execution of government infrastructural projects by curing long bottleneck and bureaucratic tendencies created by the current law. The national Budget for FY 2018/19 is projected at Shs30.9 trillion.

Out of the figure, Domestic Revenue is expected to increase to Shs 16.4 trillion, up from Shs15.2 trillion in the FY 2017/18; Budget support will also rise to Shs289 billion up from only Shs34.9 billion in the current year.

However, domestic borrowing will fall by Shs60.4 billion from Shs954.2b while project support (external financing) also falls by Shs117.2 billion compared to Shs7.1 trillion in the preceding year.
But domestic refinancing will increase to Shs5.3 trillion from Shs5 trillion as appropriation in aid also increases to Shs882.2 billion from Shs757.5 billion in the current year.
The government also considers utilising Shs200 billion from the Petroleum Fund.

Meanwhile, the government expenditure includes Shs4.2 trillion for salaries and wages; Shs14 trillion on non-wage recurrent while Shs11.7 trillion will be spent on the Development Budget.
Out of the total resource envelope (Shs 30.9 trillion), Shs10.2 trillion is statutory expenditure, implying that the total expenditure for appropriation by Parliament is Shs20.7 trillion only.

Optimistic
The government hopes that with fostered compliance mechanisms, revenue collection will be maximised.
Although this reporter was yet to establish actual tax revenue targets for the next financial year, fuel and telecom companies have usually been a green go for the government.
Key performance indicators for the next budget include; enhanced production and productivity of the primary growth sectors and interventions to speed-up direct support to private sector investment and improving service delivery.

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