Stella Nyapendi, the Acting Commissioner for Legal Services and Board Affairs at the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA), has revealed that URA collected Ugx 4,471,264,312 billion in the last quarter. This money was collected through cases settled out of court.
This discovery was revealed by Nyapendi while giving a speech to the newly appointed Tax Appeals Tribunal (TAT) members at the Judicial Training Institute in Nakawa.
According to Nyapendi, the money came from 16 cases that the Alternative Dispute Resolution Mechanism (ADR) resolved.
The revelation follows concerns from the members that ADR is taking over cases from the tribunal.
“Alternative Dispute Resolution is a structured negotiation process outside adversarial litigation hurdles,” Nyapendi explained.
She added that It offers a round-table dialogue for taxpayers and URA to come to a settlement with the help of an intermediary who is neutral and trained in ADR techniques.
Nyapendi also revealed that ADR is complementary to TAT and is aimed at reducing the case backlog at the tribunal, adding that the mechanism also saves time for the aggrieved parties involved.
This achievement in a period of three months is testimony that resolving tax cases outside the perimeters of the law is effective and can open revenue locks.
