Our traders and that EFRIS thing
What you need to know:
- Efris is supposed to capture transactions in real time including VAT paid and received at each point in the value chain and by whom. In the end Efris should ease the URA’s processing of tax refunds due to those who qualify.
The Constitution of Uganda guarantees its citizens freedom of expression, including through demonstrations, as long as such expression is peaceful and within the law.
Therefore, our traders have every right to demonstrate their dissatisfaction with the Government’s decision to implement the Electronic Fiscal Receipting and Invoicing System (EFRIS) for the administration and collection of Value Added Tax (VAT).
It is however essential to understand what VAT is all about and how it is operationalised in Uganda. A Value-Added Tax is a consumption tax assessed on the value added in each production or exchange stage of a good or service.
Every business along the value chain receives a tax credit for the VAT already paid. The end consumer does not. The essence of the definition above is that it is the final consumer who actually pays VAT, not the trader.
The English language has the expression: “time is money” which should be in every trader’s handbook. The EFRIS is no different from the time saving schemes traders are themselves implementing including advertising on social media; taking orders on-line; and receiving sales payments on-line.
Such measures save time and therefore money by making business transactions more efficient.
By the same token, Efris is Government’s attempt to raise levels of efficiency in the administration of VAT including plugging leakages and false declarations, which unfortunately many a Ugandan businessman has perfected into an art form.
Efris is supposed to capture transactions in real time including VAT paid and received at each point in the value chain and by whom. In the end Efris should ease the URA’s processing of tax refunds due to those who qualify. I would have thought that the time saved would be in the interest of all honest traders. If that were the case, then there would be no need for a strike, unless of course those who have closed their shops (which it seems to be all) have something to hide.
One question arises though. Every time someone has a grievance in the Pearl of Africa, they demand a meeting with the President. Why do we pay all those 80-plus ministers and thousands of bureaucrats, if only YKM must attend to every little issue? I implore the President to empower his assistants, by refusing to “interfere” in every little disagreement.
HGK Nyakoojo, Buziga, Kampala.
