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Tax body to save Shs3.8bn upon completion of the project
Kampala, Uganda | JULIUS BUSINGE | Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) is expected to save at least Shs 3.8bn in annual rent upon completion of its office complex in Nakawa, Kampala.
The ongoing construction works of the Shs 139bn URA Tower is set for completion in August this year. It is expected to be the tallest building in Kampala with 22 floors divided into four podiums and 18 tower floors totaling 26,021 square metres.
The recently launched Pearl of Africa Hotel, Crested Towers and Mapeera House have 19 floors while Uganda House has 16 floors.
Ian Rumanyika, the manager for public and corporate affairs in the Commissioner General’s office told The Independent in an interview that the overall physical progress of the project is 85% complete, with Ms Seyani Brothers & Co. (U) Ltd as the contractor.
He said the office complex will also provide for a car parking structure for 360 cars and surface parking for 710 vehicles.
The total area of the parking structure is 12,923 square metres with five levels for parking, with the sixth floor designed to house a crèche for breastfeeding staff, gym, Sauna and Unisex Salon.
It also has an auditorium or multipurpose high end conference hall for 300 people and mini-meeting rooms at every floor.
“The building is designed to be green with an Intelligent Building Management System (BMS) and other ICT innovations, making it a high performance building,” Rumanyika said, adding that BMS will manage all services like access control, lighting, water, security, firefighting, modern ICT network infrastructure and air conditioning.
In addition, the office complex has a central core atrium to enhance natural ventilation and minimise mechanical cooling of the building as well as house modern forensic and science laboratories that support tax investigations, customs and domestic taxes operations.
Who will occupy the building?
Rumanyika said the overall objective of the project is to converge its entire staff in Mukono, Kampala and Entebbe at the headquarter for efficient service delivery. At peak in 10 years’ time, the building is expected to accommodate up to 1,700 staff.
However, only tax information centres will remain operational in central Kampala and its environs after the closure of the main tax offices in Kampala East, North, Central, Entebbe and Mukono.
In terms of improving work efficiency for the tax body, Rumanyika said the office complex will facilitate a full integration of the back office service to support the self-service business model of e-transactions, under one roof, while maintaining only tax payers’ service centres.
“It is expected that URA will offer faster and better services to clients resulting from process integration while reducing administrative costs to the taxpayer and URA,” Rumanyika said.
The building will also improve the URA image and corporate brand in the public domain based on the fact that it has been the only revenue administration body in the EAC region without a befitting headquarters building.
The tower will provide modern office facilities that support URA’s current and future work methods of different departments. It will also improve security of vital URA computer and other records through provision of state-of-the-art and round the clock security.
Construction of the URA Tower started on Feb. 04, 2015.
