URA determined to implement digital tax stamps
Kampala. Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) has said it could resort to seeking a supplementary request to implement Digital Tax Stamps after Parliament blocked funding for the project last week.
Speaking in an interview in Kampala at the weekend, Mr Jamil Senyonjo, the URA acting assistant commissioner public and corporate affairs, told Daily Monitor they were still engaging government about funding for digital tax stamps.
“We think most likely, with continuous engagement, MPs will understand, appreciate and eventually allocate money,” he said, adding URA might seek a supplementary budget.
Parliament last week rejected URA’s request for Shs103b to implement Digital Tax Stamps in the 2019/20 financial year.
Digital Tax Stamps are physical paper stamps applied to goods or their packaging containing, among other things, security features to prevent counterfeiting, tracking capabilities for URA to monitor compliance of the product to curb tax evasion and increase revenue collection.
Ms Doris Akol, the URA commissioner general, during a meeting at Parliament last week was tasked to explain why URA had waited to request funds at the last minute. However, she could not give an immediate response.
URA faulted
MPs also wondered why URA had procured services of a Swiss company before getting funds and why the bidding was not competitive.
However, Mr Senyonjo said there were corrective measures, which could be applied in the event that URA erred in the process.
URA last year announced plans to implement Digital Tax Stamps in 2019, which had been negatively received by manufacturers, who argued the project would increase the cost of doing business.
The increase, the manufacturers said, would culminate into an increase in the price of products.
The project had required manufactures to bear the cost of the pilot project, which was later reversed with government committing to fund it.
Mr Daniel Birungi, the Uganda Manufacturers Association executive director, told Daily Monitor that no manufacturer would be willing to bear the cost of the Digital Tax Stamps, addling that whereas the move seeks to eliminate counterfeits from the market, it should not become a burden to manufactures.
