The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Mbarara, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Mbarara municipality has registered a huge shortfall in local revenue collection for the financial year 2019/2020.
According to a report by the Mayor Robert Kakyebezi Mugabe, 3.9 billion shillings was realized out of the expected 6.4 billion shillings.
Kakyebezi says that they had expected to realize 140 million shillings from advertisement/billboards but managed to get 76 million shillings, Local service Tax that was estimated to raise 500 million shillings however only 370 million shillings was realized.
The shortfall in revenue collection has taken a huge toll on service delivery such as the opening of new roads, garbage collection among others.
Mwesiga Shumbusha, the Secretary Finance, blamed the shortfall on the Covid-19 pandemic that forced most businesses to close before meeting their tax obligations.
However, Mbarara Municipal Town Clerk, Theo Tibihika, blamed the shortfall on mismanagement of local revenue. He says that unknown people have often collected revenue masquerading as municipal staff.
Tibihika says that they are doing everything possible to overcome the problem by streamlining the collection process. He explains that they plan to recruit an officer who will head the department of revenue collection before the end of the month.
Mbarara Municipality is among the seven municipalities that will attain city status effective July 1.
The others include Arua, Gulu, Jinja, Fort Portal, Masaka and Mbale.
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