John R. Musinguzi, the URA Commissioner General, addressing the press
Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) surpassed its revenue collection target for the FY 2022/23 by Shs57.48 billion.
This is because in the FY 2022/23, URA had a net revenue target of UGX 25,151.57 billion.
However, the tax body surpassed this goal and collected UGX 25,209.05 billion.
John R. Musinguzi, the URA Commissioner General made the revelation on Wednesday while briefing the media about URA’s performance report for the concluded financial year 2022/23.
“This represents a remarkable 100.23 per cent performance with a surplus of UGX 57.48 billion. The year recorded a significant revenue growth of 16.40 per cent (UGX 3,551.04 billion) compared to the previous financial year, thanks to the stable and resilient economic performance, enhanced administrative measures, and the cooperation of patriotic taxpayers,” Musinguzi said.
He added that over the past five years, there has been a consistent increase in net revenue collections. However, in the fiscal year 2019/20, growth was slower due to the impact of COVID-19. But the most recent data shows that the economy has performed better than expected, with a 5.3% growth in real terms during FY2022/23, compared to 4.6% growth in FY2021/22, according to the latest GDP figures.
Domestic tax revenue collection
In the fiscal year of 2022/23, the total revenue collected was UGX 16,425.41 billion, surpassing the target of UGX 16,188.51 billion by 101.46 per cent and resulting in a surplus of UGX 236.89 billion.
This represents a growth of UGX 2,761.52 billion (20.21 per cent) compared to the previous fiscal year. Direct domestic taxes collected exceeded the target with a surplus of UGX 724.62 billion, while Non-tax revenue, including stamp duty and embossing fees, generated a surplus of UGX 65.81 billion. However, indirect domestic taxes fell short of the target, with a deficit of UGX 553.54 billion.
International trade tax collections
In terms of international tax collections, he said, a total of UGX 9,326.64 billion was collected, which is slightly below the target of UGX 9,462.70 billion. This still shows a decent performance of 98.56 per cent. There was a notable increase in revenue growth of UGX 892.47 billion (10.68 per cent) compared to the previous fiscal year. However, the collections fell short of the target by UGX 136.05 billion.
Import duty registered a surplus of (UGX 275 17 billion), as did temporary road licenses with a surplus of (UGX 12.66 billion), and export levy with a surplus of (UGX 3.75 billion). However, several tax categories incurred shortfalls: VAT on imports fell short by (UGX 161.57 billion), petroleum duty by (UGX 152.89 billion), excise duty by (UGX 55.35 billion), withholding tax by (UGX 23.79 billion), infrastructure levy by (UGX 19.10 billion), and surcharge by (UGX 14.93 billion).
He attributed the impressive revenue performance in FY 2022/23 to continued and sustained economic growth; Enhanced administrative measures; Enforcement Interventions; Arrears management; Litigation & Debt Recovery;Tax Investigation compliance initiatives; Implementation of EFRIS & DTS and Fighting Corruption among others.
Expansion of Tax Base
He revealed that in the fiscal year 2022/23, the number of taxpayers registered increased by 882,286, indicating a growth of 33.70%.
“By the end of the fiscal year, the total number of taxpayers on the register was 3,500,294. Among them, 194,143 were non-individuals, while 3,306,151 were individual taxpayers. The growth is attributed to the success of the Tax Registration Expansion Program (TREP), which used intensive fieldwork and data-driven registrations to achieve these results,” Musinguzi said.
He added that throughout the fiscal year 2022/23, customs enforcement operations were carried out across the country, resulting in the recovery of a total of UGX 132.77 billion through 14,187 seizures. “The majority of these recoveries were attributed to various offenses, including under-declaration at 42.61 per cent, mis-description/false documentation at 11.70 per cent, undervaluation at 4.54 per cent, outright smuggling at 7.11 per cent, misclassification at 1.12 per cent, concealment at 0.60 per cent, and other offenses at 32.96 per cent,” he said.
On arrears management, he said recoveries during the fiscal year 2022/23 totalled UGX 1991.39 billion, with government commitments being fulfilled to the tune of UGX 713.47 billion. The total recoveries for non-government arrears were UGX 1,277.92 billion.
On litigation & debt recovery, Musinguzi said, in the fiscal year of 2022/23, a total of UGX 130.50 billion was recovered, surpassing the target of UGX 80.00 billion by 163.13 per cent.
Additionally, the litigation success rate for the same period was 85.33 per cent.
“As for litigation, a summary is provided of the judgments and rulings, settled cases, and convictions obtained during the review period,” he said.
