URA confidentiality is not guaranteed
Aug 30, 2005
<b>Letter of the day</b><br><br>SIR —In your issues of August 22 and 23, the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) placed a public notice assuring informers that they would get their reward and the information they gave would be held in strict confidence. The assurance is welcome but in reality it is
Letter of the day
SIR —In your issues of August 22 and 23, the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) placed a public notice assuring informers that they would get their reward and the information they gave would be held in strict confidence. The assurance is welcome but in reality it is a myth.
When information is presented to URA, it is supposed to be treated with maximum confidentiality but what happens on the ground is that informers are tossed up and down and made to visit one office after another. One time, I visited Nakawa to check on the progress of information I had supplied.
Unfortunately, the officer whom I had gone to meet was not at his desk.
The officer who was present rang the person I was reporting on and informed him in my presence that “your informer is aroundâ€! Is this confidentiality? In other instances, tax auditors leak information to the taxpayers particularly to the firms where they have interest. I am not wrong to conclude that there is no confidentiality.
Imagine reporting to URA and the receptionist starts asking you why you want to see a certain commissioner. Is this confidentiality? In the press notice, the URA re-emphasised the statement on payment of a reward upon recovery of taxes.
Much as the enquiry may take two or three months, one will be shocked to learn that cases can take three or four years without recovery of taxes. Taxes are identified but recovery is a nightmare.
What explanation can the bigwigs of URA give for their ineptitude to collect taxes when they are armed with good tax laws?
If taxes are not collected within the stipulated period, implicitly the URA tax auditors earn salaries for no real work done. In fact, I am thinking aloud. why doesn’t the auditor General raise queries on cases where URA fails to recover the much needed tax revenue? URA prides itself in chasing petty smugglers with say a tin of kimbo or a kilogramme of sugar in Busia or Malaba. How can huge tax evasions pass under their very noses unnoticed?
Because of the numerous visits to Nakawa, one normally hears that some taxpayers are recommended for waiver of taxes. This is in spite of the fact that the finance minister in his budget speech this year assured Ugandans that he does not waive taxes.
There is a lot of dilly-dallying in the whole matter.
I am not against URA but the complaint is a simple manifestation that informers are mismanaged and their lives endangered.
Unless you have jealous against a tax evader, you have to be extremely careful when divulging information to URA.
Names withheld
This letter, the Editor feels, demands special attention
SIR —In your issues of August 22 and 23, the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) placed a public notice assuring informers that they would get their reward and the information they gave would be held in strict confidence. The assurance is welcome but in reality it is a myth.
When information is presented to URA, it is supposed to be treated with maximum confidentiality but what happens on the ground is that informers are tossed up and down and made to visit one office after another. One time, I visited Nakawa to check on the progress of information I had supplied.
Unfortunately, the officer whom I had gone to meet was not at his desk.
The officer who was present rang the person I was reporting on and informed him in my presence that “your informer is aroundâ€! Is this confidentiality? In other instances, tax auditors leak information to the taxpayers particularly to the firms where they have interest. I am not wrong to conclude that there is no confidentiality.
Imagine reporting to URA and the receptionist starts asking you why you want to see a certain commissioner. Is this confidentiality? In the press notice, the URA re-emphasised the statement on payment of a reward upon recovery of taxes.
Much as the enquiry may take two or three months, one will be shocked to learn that cases can take three or four years without recovery of taxes. Taxes are identified but recovery is a nightmare.
What explanation can the bigwigs of URA give for their ineptitude to collect taxes when they are armed with good tax laws?
If taxes are not collected within the stipulated period, implicitly the URA tax auditors earn salaries for no real work done. In fact, I am thinking aloud. why doesn’t the auditor General raise queries on cases where URA fails to recover the much needed tax revenue? URA prides itself in chasing petty smugglers with say a tin of kimbo or a kilogramme of sugar in Busia or Malaba. How can huge tax evasions pass under their very noses unnoticed?
Because of the numerous visits to Nakawa, one normally hears that some taxpayers are recommended for waiver of taxes. This is in spite of the fact that the finance minister in his budget speech this year assured Ugandans that he does not waive taxes.
There is a lot of dilly-dallying in the whole matter.
I am not against URA but the complaint is a simple manifestation that informers are mismanaged and their lives endangered.
Unless you have jealous against a tax evader, you have to be extremely careful when divulging information to URA.
Names withheld
This letter, the Editor feels, demands special attention