Luwero district suffered a shortfall in local revenue collection in the first two quarters of the financial year 2021/22 resulting from the lockdown of key sectors and leakages.
According to Luwero District Budget Performance report for 2021/22, the district has only so far collected Shillings 478 million out of the Shillings 1.2 billion shillings they expected to collect in the two quarters of the financial year.
This represents a shortfall of Shillings 722 million, which they expected to collect in the two quarters ending December 2021. The l collections represent only 12.8% of the Shillings 3.7 billion the district expected to collect in the entire financial year.
The report also shows that only Shillings 42,000 out of Shillings 13 million expected from issuing licenses to liquor dealers has been collect and zero out of the Shillings 35 million they expected to collect from education institutions.
The report indicates that the district has also registered low revenue collection from the issuance of licenses to new businesses, inspection fees, market gate collections and none from royalties.
Isaac Wampamba, the Luwero District Finance and Planning Secretary, says that the low revenue collections are due to the continued lockdown of bars and schools as well as curfew restrictions.
He says that there are also corruption tendencies where officers under-declare collections and embezzle the taxes.
Godfrey Walakira, the Luwero District Senior Finance Officer, says that with support from the Ministry of Local Government they intend to digitalize local revenue collection to allow the residents to pay directly to the bank to minimize leakages.
Erastus Kibirango , the LC 5 Chairman of Luwero district, says that he is hopeful the district could still meet the target if all sectors are reopened in January 2022 and the leakages are blocked.
Kibirango says that the district has also identified more sources of revenue, which include fees on land leases and billboards among others to boost their local revenue collections.
Robert Ssekitoleko, the Bamunanika County Member of Parliament has also asked the district to ensure the little money collected is properly accounted for and used for key services if residents are to embrace tax payment.
The district intends to resort to fundraising to implement projects like the completion of its headquarters and hospital among others. They also intend to lobby development partners, Departments and Ministries for funding of other projects.
In the 2020/21 financial year, the district only collected Shillings 2.065 out of 3.123billion, which they budgeted. The shortfall was largely attributed to the lockdown announced by the government to contain the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Central Government disbursed Shillings 55.725 billion and development partners donated Shillings 241 .7 million in the financial year 2020/21. The largest portion of the budget went to pay salaries, pensioners and fight COVID-19.
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More needs to be done to support local businesses getting ready to reopening after national wide lock down. Small and local businesses are the backbones of revenue collections.