Wakiso To Privatise G. Tax Collection

By Catherine NtabaddeWAKISO district is undertaking plans to privatise the collection of graduated tax for the coming financial year.The plans were initiated because of the residents’ poor response to paying graduated tax. The district’s secretary for finance, Edward Tumusiime, said locally raised funds are supposed to amount to billions of shillings but the actual amount raised was less than one billion.He was on Friday delivering the budget speech at the district headquarters.“It is the policy of the district to tap this potential as effectively as possible. To achieve this, privatisation policy has to be expanded to include building fees and graduated tax,” he said.He said the district had estimated to raise sh805m locally but only sh705m would be realised by the end of the financial year.“Out of the estimated 125,000 tax payers, 107,922 were assessed of which 66,940 people have paid, giving a default rate of 38%. The performance suggests that the full potential is not tapped,” Tumusiime added.Ends