The Assistant Commissioner, Public and Corporate Affairs at Uganda Revenue Authority (URA), Ibrahim Bbosa, has resigned from his position. He resigned last evening, and tomorrow, August 31, is expected to be last day at the tax body.
Bbosa, who joined URA in 2021, replaced Vincent Seruma, who bowed out after a long career at the tax collection body. Since he joined URA, the tax register has continued to grow, improving the revenue collection from Shs20 trillion. This year, URA is projected to collect Shs32. 3 trillion through revenue to fund its budget.
URA has since registered a number of successes for the last 30 years, including earning the government’s trust in its capacity to transparently collect and account for all revenues. The tax body has positioned herself among her regional peers as a facilitator of trade in a harmonised environment.
His challenges started during the introduction and implementation of the Electronic Fiscal Receipting and Invoicing Solution (EFRIS). URA started implementing EFRIS in 2021 to address tax administration challenges relating to business transactions and the issuance of receipts.
Due to lack of information, a section of city traders claimed that EFRIS is a new tax, which it is not. EFRIS is a system that monitors the payment of value-added tax (VAT) and provides a platform for businesses to accurately keep records of their transactions and ease the collection of VAT.
The system helps URA assess the right taxes using accurate and authentically generated information. It also enables businesses to thrive with improved record-keeping and monitored stock and sales, among others.
During his tenure, URA conducted 81 workshops downtown, tax hub in Kikuubo for 10 days, registering over 350 participants per day and visiting over 110 shops and more than 15000 shops. Despite awareness campaigns, city traders went on strike protesting the system.
He was accused of not doing enough to enrich taxpayers with the information regarding payments tax and the continued confrontation of tax payers and the tax body.
The implementation of EFRIS aims at ensuring not just equity in tax collection, especially VAT, but also transparency. The system is expected to double total VAT collections from Shs3.5 trillion to about Shs7 trillion.
Tanzania and Rwanda adopted EFRIS over 10 years ago. These countries collect 33% and 30%, respectively, of their total tax revenue through VAT. Uganda is currently collecting about 15% VAT of its total tax revenue, and this amounts to Shs3.5 trillion.
