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The Government has set new targets for the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) in the coming financial year.

Finance state minister in charge of general duties Henry Musasizi outlined what he called “very critical assignments for URA” at a post-budget dialogue at Hotel Africana in Kampala on Tuesday.

“Expanding the tax base, bringing more Ugandans into the tax bracket and raising the tax to GDP [gross domestic product] ratio to about 18% from the current 13.5% are very critical assignments for URA,” he said.

He implored Ugandans to develop a keen interest in the budget and also pay their fair share of taxes.

On May 30, 2023, URA commissioner general John Musinguzi said their register had about 3.2 million taxpayers.

“Whereas we could be having nine million potential taxpayers, our register now has about 3.2 million people, but it’s an increase from about 1.5 million taxpayers that we had two years ago,” he said.

He said this at the Uganda Media Centre in Kampala during the launch of the National Budget month for 2023/24 by secretary to the treasury Ramathan Ggoobi, who represented finance minister Matia Kasaija.

Musinguzi said he looked forward to the time when Uganda’s budget would be fully supported by the taxes collected internally.

On May 30, 2023, URA commissioner general John Musinguzi said their register had about 3.2 million taxpayers.

He had earlier argued that when taxpayers perform their civic duty each year, they help fund critical aspects of Uganda‘s social amenities ranging from schools, roads, hospitals and its military.

“Therefore, it is incumbent upon all of us to be compliant with our tax obligations for this to happen. Those of you that are still lagging behind on this important calling, as the national fundraiser, we pledge our availability, support and commitment to make available the information, services and technical support that you need to get on board,” he said.

As an institution, he said, they rolled out a needs-based taxpayer education strategy to equip taxpayers with the relevant knowledge of their responsibilities, rights, obligations to tax, and the importance of business formalization.

“In many of our engagements with taxpayers, we have realised that most of them are willing to pay, but lack basic tax knowledge like which tax head to register and how it is computed. I, therefore, urge all Ugandans to collaborate with URA by paying your taxes diligently, filing on time and paying the right amounts,” Musinguzi implored taxpayers.

Under-collection

In his speech at the reading of the 2023/2024 budget at Kololo Ceremonial Grounds on June 15, 2023, President Yoweri Museveni said URA was also still under-collecting taxes.  

“Their tax: GDP ratio of 13% is not serious. In Europe, countries like Holland have a tax: GDP ratio of 39.7%,” he said.