A Glimpse Into URA’s Five-Year Plan Of Collecting Shs28Trn By 2024/25

Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) recently launched a new Corporate Plan 2020/21-2024/25   that will see Uganda finance a greater part of the National Development Plan (NDP) III aspirations if well implemented.

This is the forth corporate plan in a 14-year span since restructuring of URA.

Under the new plan, URA’s Mission reads: We provide an environment that delivers a delightful experience in revenue services and business facilitation, while its Vision reads: To be THE centre of excellence and innovation in revenue administration.

The new URA structure is divided into 7 levels (ranks); Commissioner General, Commissioners, Assistant Commissioners, Managers, Supervisors, Officers and support staff.

In an interview with Business Focus, Ian Rumanyika, the Assistant Commissioner Public & Corporate Affairs at URA says that the corporate plan 2020/21 – 2024/25 is premised on the need to develop an engaged citizenry that will enhance taxpaying culture by engaging taxpayers through  productive partnerships, leveraging technology, data and innovative staff.

“The Corporate Plan 2020/21 – 2024/25 puts forward robust Strategies

and initiatives to be implemented in order to promote a taxpaying culture among all Ugandans that will enable the country to attain 16% Tax to GDP by 2025,” Rumanyika (pictured) says.

He  adds: “In order for URA to realize her performance expectations in the different areas, one of the ways is through strengthening Stakeholder collaboration which seeks to streamline stakeholder management with a focus on strengthening relations and information sharing with partners as well as building increased awareness of our service offerings.”

He reveals that during this period, URA wants additional revenue of Shs12 trillion by 2024/25.

He says that the ultimate objective of URA is to increase revenue in order to facilitate Government in reducing donor dependency.

“Revenue collections are projected to grow from Shs16.62 Trillion in FY

2018/19 to Shs28.25 Trillion in FY 2024/25 representing about 70% growth in revenue over the period (Additional Shs11.63 Trillion),” Rumanyika says.

In 2019/20, URA is projected to collect Shs18.19 trillion in net tax revenue, Shs19.9 trillion in 2020/21, Shs21.7 trillion in 2021/22, Shs23.75 trillion in 2022/23 and Shs25.9 trillion in 2023/24.

Rumanyika says the Goal of National Development Plan (NDP) III is Increased Household Income and improved quality of life which will be pursued through industrialization and therefore, URA’s corporate plan is aligned to finance NDP III’s objectives and to reduce donor dependency. “This therefore requires heightened efforts in domestic resource mobilization,” he says.

To be the centre of excellence and innovation in revenue administration, URA now has four core values; Agility, Integrity, Collaboration and Excellence.

“By Agility we mean we shall practice responsiveness by continuously evolving, promptly changing or adapting our practices to successfully deliver revenue services in a dynamic business environment,” Rumanyika said, adding: “By Integrity we mean we shall consistently serve our clients with impeccable conduct, paying attention to rules and regulations and taking responsibility for our actions. This means living a life worth emulating where those around us yearn for our actions other than our words. We shall promote transparency, trust, honesty, reliability and consistency in all we you do.”

For Collaboration, he says this means believing in the power of working together, where URA shall actively pursue cooperative relationships in pursuit of delivering their Mission.

“Whether external or internal, we shall identify clear performance expectations that will guide actions from either party. We readily share knowledge, experiences, resources and opportunities in executing our strategy. We shall build strategic partnerships with groups, agencies in executing our strategy,” he said.

Asked to explain more about Excellence, Rumanyika said: “We pledge to offer quality service through continuous improvement and innovation in order to exceed client expectations; Excellence in service, Client/customer care, image and presentation.”

For successful implementation of the plan, he says URA will adopt result based management that will be incorporated into the monitoring and evaluation spectrum of the implementation of the corporate plan and all associated projects.

“The focus will be put on achieving outcomes and impact rather than activities and inputs. This will be achieved through strong organizational leadership supporting a learning culture (organizational capacity) which values evidence based information and openness,” Rumanyika said, adding: “In order to improve Corporate Accountability and enhance institutional efficiencies, continuous monitoring of URA strategy shall be conducted to assess strategy execution and its relevance to the achievement of the planned results and outcomes.”