URA partners with PayWay to ease tax payment

After receiving new revenue collection targets for 2016/17, the Uganda revenue authority has announced a new partnership with PayWay, to expand its collection platforms across the country. 

According to commissioner general, Doris Akol, the platform is another convenient payment system through which the taxman's clients will file their returns in an effort to further its efficiency. 

"URA wants to make it easy and convenient for everyone to comply on their taxes, and as such we are keen on improving service delivery especially for those in rural areas and border points.  The development is therefore another milestone for the Authority," she said. 

This was at the commissioning ceremony of the partnership at the URA headquarters in Nakawa. 

She said customers will access the service through the URA website to register their tax payment transaction, for which a payment registration slip with a unique reference number (PRN) will be given.  

"After getting the PRN, one can proceed to any of PayWay vending machine, enter the PRN and follow prompts to pay the tax," she explained. 

She said that PayWay, which is an internet-based solution to collecting and managing customer payments, has both hand-held devices and self-service vending machines, which have been designed to receive tax payments. 

"The self-service machines will be available in large supermarkets and major shopping malls while the mobile hand-held machines will be available at all Total and Shell fuel stations and many shops countrywide," she said. 

According to the URA assistant commissioner process management, William Kiganda, negotiations and testing of the system have been on-going since March 2016, with test transactions collecting more than sh20m per month. 

Kiganda said taxpayers who have smart phones can download the URA App and use it to get the PRN, while PayWay agents have been trained to assist taxpayers who cannot access URA's website. 

He said the hand-held devices will allow up to sh5m in tax payment, while the self-service vending machines carry no limit to payments.  

"On effecting payment, a taxpayer obtains a PayWay receipt while URA acknowledges payment by sensing a short message (SMS) to a taxpayer's phone.  This is part of our efforts to promote voluntary compliance through improving quality tax services," Kiganda said.

The PayWay managing director, Georgiy Matua, pointed out that this service will be a convenient option for businesses that operate beyond normal working hours.   

He said motorists who have been fined under the police express penalty scheme, can also pay for their fines using the PayWay services.