John R. Musinguzi, the URA Commissioner General
Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) collected a net revenue of Shs11.67 trillion from July to December 2022 against a target of Shs11.76 trillion. This represents 46.40% of the annual target.
This Financial Year 2022/23 (July 2022 to June 2023), URA is expected to collect Shs25.15 trillion out of the national budget of Shs49.99 trillion.
Addressing the media about URA’s half-year revenue performance at URA headquarters in Nakawa, John R. Musinguzi, the URA Commissioner General, said whereas there was a slight shortfall of Shs94.80 billion, the general performance was 99.19%.
“This performance also shows a substantial growth in revenue of Shs1.51 trillion (14.83%) compared to the same period last Financial Year 2021/22,” Musinguzi said.
He added that the revenue target for the second half of the financial year is Shs13.38 trillion, which accounts for 53.22% of the annual target of Shs25.15 trillion.
He noted that Gross Domestic revenue collections from July – December 2022 were Shs7.47 trillion against a target of Shs7.45 trillion, resulting in a slight surplus of Shs19.32 billion.
This represents a performance of 100.26% and subsequently, a growth of Shs1.24 trillion (19.91%) compared to the same period last Financial Year of 2021/22.
Direct domestic taxes registered a surplus of Shs84.74 billion, Non-tax revenue posted a surplus of Shs171.08 billion while indirect domestic taxes posted a shortfall of Shs236.50 billion.
Major surpluses were registered in PAYE (Shs225.85 billion), casino tax (Shs29.33 billion), rental tax (S17.06 billion) and tax on bank interest (Shs8.80 billion).
On the other hand, shortfalls were incurred in withholding (Shs63.78 billion), Corporate tax (Shs59.08 billion), and treasury bills (Shs39.31 billion).
According to Musinguzi, Gross International taxes collections from July – December 2022 were Shs4.45 trillion against a target of Shs4.56 trillion, representing a performance of 97.59%.
“Whereas the customs tax collections were Shs110.10 billion below the target, there was a realized growth in revenue of Shs377.73 billion (9.27%) compared to the same period last financial year,” he said.
Surpluses were registered in; import duty (Shs23.75 billion), surcharge on imports (Shs1.06 billion) and Temporary Road License (Shs16.10 billion).
However, shortfalls against the target were registered in the following tax heads: Petroleum duty by (Shs69.80 billion), Excise duty by (Shs21.95 billion), VAT on imports by (Shs42.89 billion), Withholding tax by (Shs8.80 billion), Infra-structure levy by (Shs5.68 billion) and Export levy by (Shs1.90 billion).
Tax Register Expands
Musinguzi said at least 449,975 new taxpayers have been added to the taxpayer register during the period representing a growth of 17.19% against a targeted growth of 8.50%.
“By 31st December 2022, the taxpayer register had 3,067,983 taxpayers. Of these, 180,486 were non-individuals and 2,887,497 were individual taxpayers,” Musinguzi said.
He added: “The registration performance is attributed to key initiatives like tax education and sensitization, Taxpayer Register Expansion Program (TREP), Analysis of Data, stakeholder engagements and usage of the Tujenge Uganda mobile tax offices to reach our taxpayers.”
