URA asked to design strategies to mobilize revenue from youth in informal sector

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Civil Society Organizations want the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) to come up with specific strategies that can enable them to mobilize revenue from young people working in the informal sector.

Xavier Ejoyi, the country director Action Aid Uganda said during a dialogue held in Kampala on Wednesday under the theme, ‘Youth-led Solutions: Financing Africa’s Development through Revenue Mobilization’, that young people under the age of 35 years constitute 78 percent of the population but the tax body hasn’t come up with specific ways to harness revenue from this group.

He said apart from the fact that young people take risks, they are also tech-savvy and can use the growing numbers on the internet to engage in business.

Giving an example of hawkers who are seen as a liability especially on Kampala streets, Ejoyi says if helped, they can contribute immensely to the total revenue since already the informal sector constitutes more than 50% of GDP.

Responding to these concerns, Isaac Gyagenda, the Supervisor, Tax Education at URA said they have a plan for the next five years where they are strengthening collaborations and ensuring that different groups of people get well acquainted with the tax system through tax education.

He says there have also been structural changes within the tax body whereby they are putting in place a whole department on research which will give those pointers of which areas are untapped such that they develop strategies to generate revenues from there.

On her part however, Janice Khumalo, a Youth Engagement Associate at the African Union said they want to empower youth economically through social media considering that many of them have access to a mobile phone.

She said this will be their agenda this year as they mark the November Africa Youth month.

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