The Commissioner General of Uganda Revenue Authority (URA), John Rujoki Musinguzi, has told the Parliament’s Finance Committee that he needs an extra Shs169bn to pay the salaries of newly recruited staff.
“So out of the proposed numbers for structural review, our prayer is that in the next financial year, the entire structural review requires Shs169bn but our prayer is to do 60% in the first year, and then 40% in the following year so that in two years, we are able to implement the recommended and approved new structure that will improve efficiency and tax collection,” Musinguzi said.
According to Parliament, in the last two years, URA has failed to utilize all its wage allocations from the government. Parliament further reveals that URA's wage bill will rise to over Shs366.770bn, given the Shs197.77bn that has been approved in the 2024/25 national budget.
Tax collection
The Minister of State for Finance, Henry Musasizi, has revealed that URA is expected to collect taxes worth Shs31.574trn to finance the 2024/25 national budget. He said this is an increase of Shs1.9trn from the current target of Shs29.672trn, which the Authority is expected to collect in FY 2023/24.
Musasizi made the revelation while appearing before Parliament’s Finance Committee where he led the team from URA to defend their 2024/25 national budget. Yesterday, the Minister said that the recently tabled tax proposals on cement, fuel, land transactions, etc are intended to raise revenue to the tune of Shs1.902trn.
“To achieve this projected target, URA will continue to undertake the following reforms; roll out and enforcement of electronic receipting and invoicing solution. The objective of this reform is to ensure that taxpayers are able to keep clear records, file returns in a timely manner and they are able to efficiently assess their VAT. I call upon every Ugandan to support this cause,” the Minister said.
Tough call
Agnes Apea (Amolatar District Woman MP) wondered about the magic URA will use to collect this money given the revenue shortfalls the Authority has recorded in the recent past.
“What is new and what is really magical that you are going to do to raise the expectation of this country that you are going to raise additional Shs1.9Trn? I think that will put us at risk. We are better off maintaining the revenue that we generated last year because, after all, we have never seen a year that we have achieved a surplus of 2%. I have a problem of over-exaggerating our projections and for me that is where the problem comes from.”
Jane Avur, the Vice Chairperson, Parliament’s Finance Committee said: “Whereas our annual target revenue collection is about Shs29.6Trn, up to the first half of the year and later on in the Commissioner General’s report up to the end of the year, we are still at Shs19Trn, we would like to know as a Committee, what corrective measures have you come up with for us to hit the target come June 2024? Because a lot of activities have been planned by different sectors and a lot of commitments have been made by Government based on that target.”