Ugandan citizens and other guests who will attend this year’s Tax Appreciation Week event, slated to take place starting tomorrow at the Kololo Independence Grounds in Kampala, will get free services, according to the annual event organisers, Uganda Revenue Authority (URA).
According to URA’s Vincent Seruma, the public has an opportunity to register for National IDs, passports, companies and there will be free medical services from the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF). “All these agencies will be here and free of charge,” he said.
The event is slated for September 26-28, 2018 under the theme: ‘Stronger Together’.
He added URA has lined up a couple of giveaways during the event but added that the agency “would like to see an increase in the uptake of government services.”
He said that URA would like to build trust with the public. “We would like to build trust with the public after engaging. Going forward, we would like to see that after this event the public will have trust. The event also boosts the economy from the sales during the week,” he said.
This event is to bring together direct government agencies in order for the public to hold them accountable for what the tax payer’s money has been doing.
The event is a link between Public Accountability and Tax Compliance. Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), will converge at the Kololo Independence Grounds in Kampala to showcase their services.
During the event, the public will get information about how collected revenue is expended, engage in constructive discourse with officials and other participants and seize opportunities of Government support to projects.
Last year, URA held the 12th Taxpayers’ Appreciation Week themed ‘Appreciating Uganda`s Taxpayer and saw thousands attend. They received free medical services, free yellow fever vaccination, free verification of land titles, business registration and verification, blood donation and free registration of births.
URA is mandated by the Constitution to collect tax revenue from public and private sector players to fund development projects as well meet government’s recurrent expenditure.
URA is expected to collect Shs17 trillion in 2018/19, up from the Shs15 trillion target the tax body had last financial year.