Uganda raises revenue bar for Africa with e-Tax system
Sunday, 22 Jan 2012
"To put matters into context, an applicant riding on a bus from Kampala to a border town 200 kilometres away can now apply for a tax identification number online, continue with their journey and drop physical copies of their application on arrival at the border town.
The following day, the same individual can then travel to a different town in Uganda and collect their Taxpayer Identification Number certificate from the satellite Uganda Revenue Authority tax office," says Vincent Ochen, a transactional banker at Stanbic Bank Uganda.
With the electronic system, clients can apply for driving permit renewals, road licences, passport fees and motor vehicle registration online.
The new system is expected to be extended to the payment of public services and other remittances such as the payment of traffic fines, court bails and other licences.
In the 2010/11 fiscal year, Uganda’s government laid out an ambitious revenue target of financing 75 per cent of the national budget using domestic revenue from taxes.
But last year’s double digit inflation, high lending rates and the depreciating shilling has hit the economy hard, negatively affecting revenue collection.
According to the 2010/2011 financial year performance report released in November, Uganda Revenue Authority collected Ush2.8 trillion ($1.13 billion) in domestic taxes against an annual target of Ush2.9 trillion ($1.17 billion).
