Low revenue collection hampers Hoima service delivery

By Robert Atuhairwe

Hoima municipal authorities have expressed concern over the low revenue generation in the municipality, which they say is hampering service delivery.

With two months to the end of the financial year, the municipality has only managed to collect 34% of the anticipated revenue target for the last financial year. Last year, the municipal council registered 62% in local revenue collection.

At a recent meeting at Hoima Kolping Hotel presided over by speaker Paul Amanya, councillors argued that despite the fact that about 30% of this financial year’s budget is to be realised from locally raised revenue, the municipal council is still doing poorly in its collection.

The budget that was read by Ronald Basiima, the municipal secretary for finance, is to cost sh12b.

The mayor, Mary Mugasa, told Journalists on Thursday that poor revenue collection has frustrated service delivery in some sectors, with the most affected being roads and extension of piped water.

“At times, council has been forced to work on small roads in shifts due to financial constraints but a large portion of the roads have not been properly worked on,” Mugasa said.

She explained that although they receive grants from the central government, the money is attached to bigger projects and the council has a duty to work on smaller ones using locally raised revenue.

She blamed the problem on lack of comprehensive data on sources of revenue and tax evasion by some tax payers.

Another cause of poor revenue collection is laxity in monitoring by the finance department, which Mugasa said is understaffed.

“The Government should lift this recruitment ban on staff, so that we can recruit enough personnel, for instance the whole municipality has only two law enforcement officers,” she explained.

Brian Kaboyo, the municipal youth councillor, expressed concern saying the council should put concrete measures in place to increase revenue. He said the municipal should act tough when collecting remittances from tax payers.

Mugasa, however, said the council has put in place mechanisms that they think will enhance revenue collections. Among them, a resolution to shift hardware stores from the town centre to the outskirts.

According to the council, these hardware stores had turned several shops into single stores and yet could be charged licence fees as individual shops.

She said council was also considering registering boda bodas and charging them a licence fee.