By Jumah Kakomo
Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) has registered UGX 286.44 billion surplus tax revenue for the first quarter of this financial year 2022/23.
Addressing the media at URA headquarters Nakawa Kampala on Thursday this week regarding the performance of Authority revenue collection, John Musinguzi the authority Commissioner General noted that from July to September, net revenue collections were UGX 5,418.60 billion against a target of UGX 5,132.17 billion, resulting in UGX 286.44 billion surpluses which 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).
He says 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.
Musinguzi has disclosed reasons for the Domestic Taxes performance as follows; 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 also attributed to the operational teams’ intensive focused field activities, stakeholder management, and improved tax compliance support, 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 among others.
In the same vein, 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 due to growth in dry import value: The import value of dry cargo increased by 28.42% (UGX 1,720.27 billion) particularly vatable goods imports and dutiable goods imports. This translated into more revenue collected and partly explaining the cumulative surplus of UGX 151.24 billion in international trade tax collections. This is partly because the economy is recovering, and businesses are picking up, increase in fuel import volumes by 88.41 million liters (18.06%) compared to the same period last financial year. This is majorly explained by the increase in volumes of petrol by 71.56 million liters (33.34%) and kerosene by 2.20 million liters (20.73%), among others.
Musinguzi mentioned the most sectorol contribution to revenue in the quarter led by wholesale and retail trade sector which had the biggest contribution, which amounted to UGX 1,604.01 billion (28.93%), followed by the manufacturing sector followed with a contribution of UGX 1,279.17 billion (23.07%), the financial activities contributed UGX 493.55 billion (8.90%), the Information and communication sector contributed UGX 337.78 billion (6.09%), and Public administration, defense, and compulsory social security contributed UGX 243.86 billion (4.40 per cent)
Juma Kisaame, chairman of the URA board, says revenue collection is managed using approaches that influence taxpayer compliance behavior in order to improve compliance, improve processes, and increase tax administration efficiency.
These include; taxpayer segmentation, taxpayer register expansion initiatives, filing ratio monitoring, arrears/debt management, litigation, tax compliance investigations, and enforcement operations.
This financial year 2022/23 (July 2022 to June 2023), URA is expected to collect UGX 25,550.69 Billion.
