The East African Community revenue authorities have resolved to collaborate in the elimination of tax crimes in the region in order to foster regional self-reliance.

This was during the East African Commissioners Tax Investigations forum recently. The deliberations centered on the theme “Leveraging technology and data for revenue mobilization”.

The URA commissioner of Tax Investigations department Dennis Kugonza Kateba revealed to fellow commissioners that tax fraudsters are advancing in knowledge and technology hence the need for collective efforts by East African nations to tackle the crime.

“Tax fraudsters are becoming shrewder; they are doing everything possible including investing in modern technology and skills development so as to evade tax. We must work together and eliminate these cartels,” Kugonza continued.

The delegation from Kenya led by Dr. Edward Karanja Commissioner TID highlighted the need to put a human face in tax investigations to ensure self-compliance. The team stated that Kenya Revenue Authority is currently working on empowering its officers to improve the image they hold in public thus facilitating change in the dynamics of taxation.

“We need to work closely with other government agencies to enable them to appreciate that the revenue we are generating is to support national growth and development rather than working in seclusion,” said Dr. Tera Saidimu, KRA commissioner intelligence and strategic operations.

In his remarks the Burundi commissioner Mr. Niyonzima Jean Berchmans highlighted misdeclaration, transcribing, dumping of goods into East Africa, and taxation of the digital economy as matters to be investigated swiftly to close this revenue leakage.

The Rwandan representative Emma Rwigema appreciated information sharing between East African nations.  He disclosed that his country has so far recovered 8 billion francs in revenue due to shared investigations. He also lauded URA for the training in intelligence-based revenue collection and requested for joint operations among the nations.

The Commissioner of Tax Investigations Tanzania Revenue Authority, Mr. Everest Mashiba cited plea-bargaining as a way of easing tension and a faster way of recovering tax from fraudsters. He said that a big milestone has been walked and more is still coming.

Ms. Joyce Wani, Acting Commissioner of Internal Affairs in South asked the East African Revenue Authorities to make policies that will favor the youngest nation in the bloc.

“South Sudan is still young, we still have a lot to learn though with much to offer. With such initiatives coming up we shall definitely become a better nation and Africa.”

 The resolutions for this meeting shall be adopted for implementation by the East African Revenue Commissioners General forum which is scheduled for Thursday 16th February 2023. This event has attracted the largest delegation ever since the inception of the forum.

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Over 100 agribusiness enterprises are set to benefit from the Agribusiness Development Centre (ADC) business accelerator program.

The population growth rate has consistently remained higher than the jobs creation rate necessary to absorb new entrants to the labour market, resulting in unemployment and underemployment. The few jobs created sideline youth and due to severe skills, many youths are engaged in low value services like vending with only a handful able to secure high value ones in agro processing.

ADC powered by dfcu limited and Rabo foundation has partnered with GOPA Worldwide consultants to implement Cohort two and three of the Business Accelerator Program (BAP) in line with the Enhancing the Competitiveness of Small and Medium Enterprises (ECOS) project, which is funded by the Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale  Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH.

The collaboration is aimed at increasing over 100 Agribusiness Competitiveness with the overarching goal of triggering necessary linkages for its growth and resultant creation and improvement of jobs.

ADC’s mandate of capacity building of agribusinesses to bankability and self-sufficiency for enhanced incomes and job creation is well aligned to the ECOS project’s goal, and dfcu vision to transform lives and businesses through innovative solutions and empowering people which contribute to the four key pillars and objectives of National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS), one of which is: “Reduce Financial Exclusion and Access Barriers to Finance.”

Agriculture is one of the key sectors Dfcu has made commitments to support and has put in place strategies to de-risk agriculture. The bank has intentionally created different Agri-products like Agri-Asset Financing, Agri Production Loans, Business Loans, Farmer Group Accounts, Save for Loan Accounts, Enterprise accounts and made them attractive and more affordable to the Small and Medium Enterprises, women entrepreneurs and Investment Clubs.”

“Since its inception, dfcu has made continuous commitments to support a wide base of customers that include; SMEs, women entrepreneurs, Investment Clubs. Our partnership with ADC is part of a joint mission to grow, build and promote the prospect of a sustainable future,” William Sekabembe, Ag CEO noted.

ADC will approach the cohort two and three by using a multidimensional approach focused on a combination of Training, Mentoring, Coaching and Technical Assistance. The methods shall be utilized jointly to address the main constraints to accessing and using financial services for improved business operations, investment readiness and linkages to funding for growth and job creation.

“We shall integrate key themes of gender and green growth for sustainability within the training modules, the outcome of which being enterprises developing strategies on the same as well as establishing key indicators to track women participation in SME leadership,” Josephine Mukumbya, Executive Director ADC said.

By the end of 2023, fifty jobs will be created by the enterprises graduated from the program, 100 intern jobs created contractually within the enterprises and 10% increase in incomes of trained and linked Agribusinesses.

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National and global financial analysts say Ugandans rank highly among the worst when it comes to saving money in commercial banks and other financial institutions, negatively impacting investments in the country.

In fact, a recent survey reveals that 87 percent of Ugandans aged 10 and above do not own a functional bank or savings account. The National Labour Force Survey, 2021, which was done by Uganda National Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) still shows that only 9 percent of the population had a functional bank account while only 3 percent of the entire population possess a microfinance/SACCO account.

Another report released earlier by the Deposit Protection Funds (DPF) shows that more than 90 percent of Ugandans who hold bank accounts do not keep more than one million shillings at any one time in their accounts, a sign of the poor saving culture.

There are many reasons for the above figures such as poverty, lack of financial literacy and lack of bank branches in the rural areas of Uganda among other reasons.

However, the other big reason why Ugandans do not want to save with banks and other financial institutions is fraud orchestrated by the bank staff, and is a hot topic in the local media and banking industry, which is a shame not only on the side of banks but the government and country at large.

However much there is some form of insurance cover for deposits, some Ugandans have decided to keep their money in sacks at home because they fear it will be stolen by bank staff and will never be recovered.

Interestingly, many of the banks are not willing to apologise to the victims who have lost their money and in most cases, without even investigating, the banks put the blame on the victims.

Further still, the Uganda Bankers’ Association (UBA), an umbrella of local banks in the country has never come up to publicly condemn the bank staff who fleece depositors’ money. UBA is only seen in the public lamenting when a member bank falls victim to sharp business goons like it happened recently with one of their members.

Banks should know that their thieving staff are an obstacle to investment in the country. When an investor loses his money in the bank, there is no doubt that his projects will stall due to lack of working capital. Further, investors, especially foreign ones will fear saving their money in Ugandan banks. That results in unemployment.

Relatedly, due to greed, some of the bank staff have gone further to con clients of their properties such as land and buildings. A story is told of how the staff of a certain bank were involved in a murder of a client so that they could benefit from his prime land in one of the major cities in the country. The client had mortgaged the land to the bank for a loan.

Some banks have been accused of trying to hold on or using the money of the dead, which some people say is unethical and unfair to the family of the deceased.

Disturbing still, the Bank of Uganda (BoU) which regulates banks in the country, is also shy to publicly condemn banks for their vices. BoU should come out and tell the public actions being taken to clean banks of iniquities, even though the Central Bank has its own share of controversies arising from the closure and liquidation of some banks.

Meanwhile, some members of the public are calling for lifestyle audits of those working in banks. They say most of the money stolen from banks by staff ends up in real estate and lending, while some are keeping the money either in their houses or with friends and relatives, which is bad, on the side of investments.

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The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development is considering introducing a new tax on all gold exports.

This is being considered in the Mining and Minerals (Export Levy) Regulations which are currently being revised by the ministry.

 According to the draft regulations seen by Eagle Online, the standard levy for all gold exported out of the country is meant to avoid loss of revenue.

 “The levy referred to in sub regulation (1) shall be paid by the exporter to the Uganda Revenue Authority at the time the processed gold is exported out of Uganda,” the regulations read in part.

The ministry spokesperson, Mr. Solomon Muyita, said the minister was still reviewing the regulations.

“The permanent secretary was reviewing the document before the minister could sign,” he said.

The regulations were made in exercise of the powers conferred upon the minister responsible for mineral development under section 287(2) (s) of the Mining and Minerals, Act, 2022

 The proposed regulations also state that processed gold refers to refined gold with a minimum fineness of 99.5% purity since the export of unrefined gold was banned when the Mining and minerals act, 2021 was signed into law on 17 February 2022.

The above regulation will be a revision from the $100 (Shs360,000) for each kilogram of refined gold exports stated in the Mining and minerals Act, 2021.

However in July 2021, the gold dealers rejected a five percent levy that had been imposed on gold exports by the government and suspended gold exports for close to a year until the Finance ministry stayed the implementation of the levy.

This comes a month after URA signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Gold Refiners, Exporters, and Dealers Association of Uganda (GREDAU) to streamline relations.

Under the MoU, gold dealers pledged to become tax compliant and pay existing tax arrears as far back as July 2021.

In addition, they would share information on the export and import of gold, alert URA of any illegal gold dealers, cooperate with URA in the collection of taxes and advise on any entities that are suspected of engaging in smuggling, tax evasion, and other illicit activities in the gold industry.

The MoU further discloses that URA shall recognize the association as a legal entity, educate gold dealers on their tax obligations and ensure that there is tax compliance.

Gold exports had hit Shs7 trillion as reported by URA in FY 2021/2022.

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