Par Johnson, a financial consultant from the International Monetary Fund’s East AFRITAC Program has praised the Uganda Revenue Authority’s (URA’s) strategy of forecasting revenue projections based on the prevailing economic situations.
He made this remark during an engagement between the URA, the Ministry of Finance, and a delegation from the IMF-AFRITAC East programme held at the URA headquarters in Nakawa.
“I like the fact that you are flexible in setting revenue projections for the future based on the prevailing economic conditions. In other countries we visited, there is rigidity,” said Par.
His acknowledgment came after URA’s revenue projection presentation, in which they said that the revenue projections for the upcoming financial period are influenced by the state of the economy and the performance of the tax head during a given period.
Diana Kisaka, the assistant commissioner of finance, underlined that URA depends on administrative efficiency to boost revenue collections because no taxes have been introduced in the preceding three fiscal years.
“We are bringing new people on board; for small tax payers, we use modern technologies like USSD code. Other innovations include integration of systems with sister agencies, information sharing with our partner states, automation of our systems, and carrying out massive tax education to ensure voluntary compliance,” Kisaka stated.
AFRITAC East is a collaborative venture between the IMF, the recipient countries, and bilateral and multilateral development partners. It originated from the IMF’s response to African leaders call on the international community to increase technical assistance to Africa and focus it more sharply on capacity building.
AFRITAC East provides technical assistance and training to Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania (including Zanzibar), and Uganda.