URA headquarters in Nakawa, Kampala
Domestic revenue collected by Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) for the month amounted to Shs1.61 trillion, representing a 102.1% performance against the planned Shs1.57 trillion for the month, the April 2021 Performance of the Economy Report released by Ministry of Finance reveals.
Of this, the report says, Shs1.52 trillion was tax revenue collections while Shs88.52 billion was non-Tax revenue.
“The performance under tax revenue was majorly on account of the more than anticipated collections from Taxes on international trade and transactions as well as indirect domestic taxes,” the report reads in part.
It adds that taxes on international trade and transactions amounted to Shs665.28 billion posting a Shs85.44 billion surplus. This was largely on account of the more than projected collections from petroleum duty, import duty and VAT on imports as demand for imports continues to pick up as reflected in the increased import volumes.
Similarly, the report says, Indirect domestic tax collections posted a Shs 1.62 billion surplus against the target of Shs 429.58 billion.
“This surplus was largely attributed to VAT collections mainly from manufactured goods and real estate activities during the month,” the report says.
On the other hand, it says, Direct domestic tax collections for the month registered a shortfall worth Shs 16.45 billion.
“This shortfall was mainly on account of underperformance in Corporate tax collections for the month as most firms continue to experience low profitability. Shortfalls under PAYE, withholding tax and rental tax income also contributed to the shortfall in direct tax collections,” the report reads.
Expenditure
The report adds that total Government spending for April 2021 amounted to Shs2.89 trillion, which was 12.8% higher than the Shs2.56 trillion planned for the month.
“This was largely attributed to the higher than planned spending under non-wage recurrent expenditures and domestically financed Development expenditure during the month,” says the report.
It adds that the performance under other current expenditure was mainly attributed to higher spending for elections materials under the electoral commission (Shs 62 billion), road fund (Shs 115 billion) and transfers to UDB and Microfinance support center (Shs 83 billion).
“Under Development expenditure, there was higher than planned spending on domestically financed development activities which were 77.9% higher than the Shs694.7 billion that had initially been planned for the month,” the report says.
