The Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) in November 2018 collected Shs11.9 billion more when it realised total tax collections of Shs1,264.6 billion against a target of Shs1,252.7 billion, according to the latest Performance of the Economy Report.
According to the report published by the Ministry of Finance, the higher than anticipated tax revenue collection was mainly due to the performance of direct domestic taxes which was above its target by over Shs47.7 billion, thereby offsetting the shortfall in the other two tax categories of indirect domestic taxes and taxes on international trade.
The report show that both taxes on international trade and indirect domestic taxes were below their targets for the month by 3.8 percent and 5.7 per cent respectively. The taxes on international trade transactions were affected by lower value of dutiable imports than what was projected for the month at the start of the financial year.
Direct domestic taxes, on the other hand, were above their target by 13.8 per cent as PAYE, corporate tax, presumptive tax and withholding tax all performed well during the month.
On the other hand, non-tax revenue collections in November were Shs39.3 billion against a target of Shs35.4 billion, which resulted into a surplus of Shs3.9 billion as government charges, fees and licenses generated more revenue than what had been anticipated.
Meanwhile government received in November received grants worth Shs175.8 billion during the month. This was against the projection of Shs170.2 billion, marking a performance of 103.3 per cent. Of the total grants received during the month, Shs164.1 billion was earmarked towards project support activities while Shs11.7 billion was inform of debt relief.
Expenditure
The report says total government spending during November 2018 was Shs1, 770.0 billion against a program of Shs2,185.9 billion. This translates into 19 per cent lower than the projected expenditure levels for the month, mainly on account of externally financed development expenditure which performed at only 42.8 per cent and thereby offsetting domestically financed development expenditure that was higher than its projected levels by 45.2 per cent.
Government expenditure on recurrent items was 2.3 percent lower than its programed levels, largely on account of a downward revision of interest payments for the period.