Uganda Revenue Authority collections rise by 16%

Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) Commissioner General Doris Akol has revealed that revenue collections have grown by 16% this year. Revenue collected by the URA, has also helped fund about 61% of the Government Expenditure Budget.

Akol made the revelations in an end-of-financial-year statement Monday, in which she hailed taxpayers of all categories for cooperating with the tax body to achieve targets set by government.

“I am glad to report that because of your efforts and compliance, this financial year, we will have collected for the Government over sh 11.3 trillion,” she said in her statement.  Target was sh11.6 trillion.

“At URA we are proud that we have accomplished well the assignment that was handed to us at the beginning of the financial year in July 2015. It was not an easy task due to certain unfavorable conditions prevailing like the depreciation of the Uganda Shilling, which affected imports and ultimately revenue collection,” Commissioner General Akol said.

Akol used the opportunity to remind taxpayers to meet their obligations, hours to the close of the financial year in Uganda – June 30.

In this year’s budget speech, Finance Minsiter Matia Kasaija acknowledged the improved URA performance compared to the previous year, and gave URA a new target of Sh 12.9 trillion in the next financial year.

Earlier in the month, Kasaija said, “provisional outturn for domestic revenue for the financial year2015/16 is Shs. 11,598 billion equivalent to 13.2% of GDP. This is higher than the planned target of Shs. 11,333 billion. The Shs. 11,598 billion is accounted for as follows: provisional outturn for tax revenue is Shs. 11,192 billion, non-tax revenue is Shs. 282 billion. Oil capital gains tax revenue Shs. 124 billion.”

FULL STATEMENT

URA -End of Year for Taxpayers by The Independent Magazine