By Flavia Ajok
Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) says failure by the business community to remit taxes is to blame for the increased debt burden.
A recent parliamentary report has painted a gloomy picture of Uganda’s debt portfolio as the country struggles to keep up payments to its creditors.
The Committee on the National Economy in September 2022, revealed that Uganda’s public debt stock increased by 22 percent from Shs50.9 trillion in the 2019/2020 fiscal year to Shs69.5 trillion by end of the 2020/2021 fiscal year.
Now, speaking during a stakeholders’ engagement on Tax Awareness and Mobilization in the mid-western region organized by URA at Hoima Kolping Hotel, Denis Kugonza Kateeba, the head of tax investigation who represented the URA commissioner general wondered why many business people evade paying taxes.
He cited the Hoima station that comprises of five districts of Kagadi, Kiboga, Kyankwanzi, Hoima and Kikuube which has a target of Ugx12 billion revenue collection annually but only Sh10bn has been realized yet the government has released over Sh100bn to fund various activities in the area.
He adds that the service delivery will keep dwindling because most funds are used to repay loans.
Kugonza says most business communities are not paying what they are supposed to pay and others don’t want to correctly declare their property to URA thinking that its URA money yet they are just mandated to collect taxes on behalf of government.
