URA seeks sh66bn additional funding

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) is seeking an additional funding of sh66.3 billion shillings to improve its operations.

The request for more funds in the coming financial year 2019/2020 was on Thursday tabled before Parliament’s Finance Committee by the URA Commissioner General, Doris Akol.

The authority’s budget for the coming financial year increased by 99.33 billion shillings from the current 331.92 billion shillings budget in the present financial year 2018/2019 to 431.26 billion shillings.

According to Akol, the additional funds are to carter for recruitment and structural review (27.9 billion), purchase of office and ICT equipment (24.1 billion), tax education (2.3 billion), tax investigations (2 billion), domestic tax collection (8 billion) and others.

Akol justified the need for more 8 billion towards domestic tax collection saying that this is to enable them change proposals to laws, policies and regulations as well as design and develop an enhanced integrated tax solution to ease compliance.

She said that if availed, the money will help the tax collection body to achieve its planned activities in the coming financial year which includes carrying out 3,012 tax audits and examinations, recover 80 billion shillings from debtors, register 113,675 new taxpayers, and conclude investigations of 85 schemes and sector-based cases and others.

Finance Committee Chairperson Henry Musasizi demanded that URA explains to the committee what it intends to use the already additional funding of Shillings 99.3 billion in the coming financial year.

Minister of State for Finance -General Duties, Dr Gabriel Ajedra Aridru, also appealed to the committee to support URA with the necessary funding so that it can fulfill its mandate.

Musasizi promised that his committee will discuss the funding of URA and make recommendations to the Parliament Budget Committee.

In the coming financial year 2019/2020, government has projected a revenue collection target of Shillings 20.25 trillion up from this financial year’s target of 16.4 trillion.

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URN