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Lira, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Lira City East Division authorities have abandoned the Integrated Revenue Administration System (IRAS) and reverted to the manual revenue collection method.
IRAS is a web and mobile application platform that was launched in January this year to reduce revenue leakages through low assessment, reduce counterfeit receipts and save time among other reasons.
However, some division and city council authorities say they have found challenges using the system including low revenue collection since it was introduced.
For example in this financial year, Lira City East Division has collected only Shillings 600 million compared to shillings 2.5 billion collected in the last financial year using the old method.
As a result, the authorities have resorted to the physical collection of revenue as opposed to the IRAS.
George Okello Ayo, the Mayor of Lira City East Division says that the ignorance about the system forced many people to shun it, which affected revenue collection.
He says that they have managed to collect over Shillings 5 million in just weeks after resorting to the physical revenue collection system.
Moses Hassan Okeng, the Deputy Speaker of Lira City East Division says the division will only fail to raise revenue from the many revenue sources if the enforcers chose to swindle the money collected as revenue.
Another councillor, who spoke on condition of anonymity, argued that there was a need for the councillors to be trained about the new system because it was just introduced and they were not well conversant with it.
Early this week, councillors of Lira City East division threatened to hold a peaceful demonstration over unpaid emolument, which is generated from the local revenue.
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