NAKAWA-The Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) has implemented a lifestyle audit policy in an effort to fight corruption within the tax body.
The revelation was made by Ibrahim Bbossa, the Assistant Commissioner, Public and Corporate at URA during a media engagement held at URA headquarters in Kampala saying that 63 URA staff members have been terminated on aspects of integrity in the last three years. URA employs over 3,000 people.
“Lifestyle audit policy is new in the institution. If somebody points a finger at you, whether it’s a taxpayer or you’re being investigated, we’ll look at what you earn, what your family earns, and what you own; we really need to check up because sometimes the devil is in the details. This is something unprecedented and it has been put in place to change people’s behaviour in the institution, especially on issues of corruption,” Bbossa said.
He added: “The fight against corruption is a big agenda. We are fighting to see that there are no [tax revenue] leakages within just like we are fighting leakages out there.”
Bbossa also blamed the politicization of revenue collection in the Ugandan public as one of the reasons affecting compliance with tax obligations, hence low revenue collections in the country.
“Tax collection is hinged on trust, and it has been evident on our part, every time the public doesn’t trust us, the numbers are just deep, just like the stock exchange. Some people will conveniently not pay their taxes, because of some political statement about URA or its personalities,” he said.
Moses Owino, the Manager for Enforcement in Kampala Metropolitan Area at the URA, said while outright smuggling has significantly reduced to about 7%, miss-classification, under-declaration, and under-valuation have gone up in recent years.
URA’s latest data shows that under declaration of goods by importers stands at 43% while miss-classification is at 15%.
Owino said engagement, education, and enforcement approaches are some of the measures out in place to reduce revenue leakages.
In the current Financial Year, URA has so far had 9,200 seizures and recovered Shs88.2 billion as of March 2023.
For strict enforcement, the authority indicated that it installed a vehicle tracking system, which is used to monitor both dry and wet cargo coming into Uganda, passing through as well as being exported.
URA recently revealed that it had so far collected Shs21.4 trillion taxes for FY 2022/2023 and was targeting to collect the Shs2.4 trillion within the two weeks before the end of this financial year on June 30.
URA is expected to collect over Shs29.3 trillion in FY2023/24, an increment of over 3.7 trillion from the current year’s target.
