The Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) collected taxes worth Shs 1.487 billion in December 2017, making a shortfall of 114.5bn representing a seven percent less than the monthly target, the latest Performance the Economy Report indicates.
The report released by the Ministry of Finance states that the shortfalls mainly arose from direct domestic taxes, in particular on corporate tax, tax on bank interest and presumptive tax.
‘Corporate tax was affected by low sales and profits by key tax payers in sectors such as energy and construction. Tax on bank interest was on the other hand affected by reduction in fixed deposits with the commercial bank on which it is imposed’, the report states in part.
Further, according to the report, taxes on goods and services, and taxes on international trade also performed below their monthly targets at 89 percent and 94 percent, respectively.
‘Taxes on goods and services were affected by VAT on beer, sugar and cement due to the lower than anticipated production while the performance of international taxes was affected by lower than anticipated dutiable imports’, the report adds. That meant that petroleum duty, excise duty, VAT on imports and surcharge on imports attracted less than the anticipated receipts.
However, the report says compared to December 2016, tax revenue collections in December 2017 grew by 9.1 percent.
The Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) is tasked to collect taxes of over Shs15 trillion in the financial year 2017/18 which will end in June when the new national budget is expected to be read.
