Uganda Revenue Authority Registers 14.99% Revenue Growth in FY 2020/21.

The Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) has registered a growth in revenue and tax to GDP ratio, the highest growth registered in the last four years according to the revenue performance report.

In the FY 2020/21, URA collected net revenue of UGX 19,263.00 billion and posted growth in revenue of 14.99% in comparison to the FY 2019/20 and an estimated tax to GDP ratio of 12.99% which reflects a growth in revenue of UGX 2,511.36 billion and growth in the tax to GDP ratio by 1%.

This was revealed by the Commissioner-General, John Musinguzi, as he delivered a report on the revenue performance for the financial year (FY) 2020/21, the factors behind the performance, and the outlook for the FY 2021/22.

The net revenue collection of UGX 21,638.65 billion by UGX 2,375.65 billion was the target approved by Parliament and macroeconomic variables that affect revenue were projected at 6% before the impact of COVID-19 set in. By the end of the financial year, GDP growth rate was at 3%.

The domestic revenue collections registered a growth of 13.71% in the FY 2020/21 in comparison to the FY 2019/20. However, the collections were below the target by approximately 13.5%.

Customs revenue collections grew by 16.43% (UGX 1059.27 billion) in comparison to FY 2019/20. On the other hand, a deficit of approximately 12.5% was registered.

Musinguzi attributed the shortfall in revenue to the adverse impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic which led to a slowdown in activities in some key sectors like education, accommodation, among others.

“PAYE was one of the major tax heads affected leading to a shortfall of UGX 315.51 billion, mainly due to scale down in the number of employees by some organisations,” he said.

He further added that the corporate tax collections were also below the target, owing to losses made in adversely affected areas. Plus, tax administration interventions were allowed down and for some months stopped because of the observation of SOPs.

With much concern, Musinguzi showed that the taxpayer register increased by 10.6% by the end of the financial year.

Besides the expansion of the taxpayer register, URA improved the Regional Electronic Cargo Tracking System (RECTS) by enabling it with the driver tracking module.

“URA is able to monitor 72% of the goods being processed from the port of Mombasa and also support driver tracking and their contacts as we fight the COVID-19 pandemic,” Musinguzi revealed.

URA is now looking at mobilising UGX 22,363.51 billion of the UGX 22,425.37 billion, a target revenue approved by Parliament for the FY 2021/22. This is a 16.1% increase as compared to the revenue collected in FY 2020/21.

In this financial year, URA seeks to utilise the 30 years anniversary celebrations as an opportunity to galvanise the new strategic direction on which they will deliver the country to economic independence.

In achieving this, URA intends to focus on key initiatives like; tax education and services, stakeholder engagement, process improvements, corporate governance and leveraging technology and data.