John R. Musinguzi, the URA Commissioner General addressing the press
Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) registered net revenue collections of UGX 5,418.60 billion against a target of UGX 5,132.17 billion from July to September 2022.
This resulted into UGX 286.44 billion surplus.
The revelation was made by John R. Musinguzi, the URA Commissioner General while sharing with the media the performance for the first quarter of this financial year (July – September) at URA headquarters in Kampala on Thursday.
“This represents a 105.58% improved performance and a revenue increase of UGX 957.80 billion (21.47%) compared to the same period in the previous financial year (July to September 2021),” Musinguzi said.
This financial year 2022/23 (July 2022 to June 2023), URA is expected to collect UGX 25,550.69 Billion.
Musinguzi said domestic revenue net collections were UGX 3,178.77 billion against a target of UGX 3,043.66 billion, resulting in a surplus of UGX 135.10 billion.
This represents a 104.44% performance and a revenue growth of UGX 581.58 billion (22.39%) compared to the same period in the previous financial year (July to September 2021).
Direct domestic taxes registered a surplus of UGX 37.49 billion, Non-tax revenue posted a surplus of UGX 146.86 billion, while indirect domestic taxes posted a deficit of UGX 51.41 billion.
The major surpluses were registered in PAYE (UGX 85.89 billion), casino tax (UGX 17.34 billion), Corporate tax (UGX 14.99 billion), tax on bank interest (UGX 4.69 billion) and rental tax (UGX 1.46 billion).
On the other hand, slight shortfalls were incurred in withholding (UGX 63.29 billion), VAT (UGX 41.28 billion), Local Excise Duty (LED) (UGX 10.13 billion) and treasury bills (UGX 7.51 billion).
Reasons for the Domestic Taxes performance
The URA boss said the PAYE surplus is attributed to growth in the wage bill witnessed by companies whose PAYE increased due to increased staff numbers.
“The increase in Domestic Taxes can also be attributed to the operational teams’ intensive focused field activities, stakeholder management, improved tax compliance support,” he said, adding that the shortfall in Withholding tax is partly attributed to reduced budget releases for the various Government entities for Quarter one, preventing them from paying some of their suppliers.
He added that they observed increased capital expenditure due to capital investments among URA’s clients as a result of improved economic performance.
“Furthermore, the high inflation, which has risen from 6.8% in June 2022 to 10% by the end of September 2022, has resulted in an increase in the cost of doing business, and, thus, high input costs. This has had an impact on taxpayer VAT revenue realised during the period under review,” Musinguzi said.
INTERNATIONAL TRADE TAX COLLECTIONS
He noted that international trade net taxes were UGX 2,239.83 billion against a target of UGX 2,088.50 billion, resulting in a surplus of 151.33 billion. This represents a 107.25% performance.
The major surpluses were registered in; import duty (UGX 52.59 billion), VAT on imports (UGX 49.14 billion), petroleum duty (UGX 45.70 billion), surcharge on imports (UGX 6.63 billion), excise duty (UGX 3.34 billion) and infrastructure levy (UGX 0.30 billion).
However, shortfalls were incurred in; withholding tax (UGX 3.43 billion), temporary road license (UGX 2.43 billion) and export levy (UGX 0.61 billion).
Expansion of the Taxpayer register
He revealed that at least 147,892 new taxpayers were added to the taxpayer register during the period under review, representing a growth of 5.65%. As at the end of September 2022, the taxpayer register had 2,765,900 taxpayers. Of these, 174,020 are non-individuals, and 2,591,880 are individual taxpayers.
“The registration performance is attributed to key initiatives like Tax Education and sensitisation, Taxpayer Register Expansion Program (TREP), Data analysis from third-party data, stakeholder engagements and using the Tujenge bus to reach our taxpayers,” he said.
He added that the tax body is optimistic about meeting its revenue collection target.
“While mobilising UGX 25.55 trillion is an uphill task, we are confident that this goal is attainable with the help of every tax-paying citizen and economic player,” he said.
