The Commissioner General of the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) , John R. Musinguzi has vowed that the tax body he leads will mobilize enough revenue for national development.
Speaking at the 2020 Taxpayers’ Appreciation Ceremony held on Friday at Mestil Hotel in Kampala, he said , “At URA, we have renewed our commitment to leading Uganda to economic self-sufficiency status and we appeal to you all our esteemed taxpayers to commit to take this journey with us.”
“We are deliberately reviewing, reforming, and revamping the way we have been working. A number of initiatives have been implemented to enable us transform the way we work and offer a better service to our clients. Over the years, there has been revenue growth year-on-year and we thank God for this achievement.”
Despite the enthusiasm exhibited by Musinguzi, the country still cant fully fund its national budget meeting only 47% of the national budget requirements. To make matters worse , Uganda ‘s Tax to GDP ratio is still at a paltry 13%.
This is below the average sub-Saharan African performance of 16%. Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) average is 34.3%.
Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) average is 23.1%. Morocco, Seychelles, South Africa and Tunisia are at more than 25% Tax to GDP ratio.
