URA Collects Shs 8.7Tn in Six Months

In the second half of 2020 (July to December), the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) registered a substantive growth in revenue, posting collections amounting to Shs8.7Tn, John Musinguzi, the Commissioner General of URA has revealed.

The tax body collected Shs4.63Tn, in the second quarter of FY2020/21 (October to December), after the Shs4.07Tn in the first quarter (July to September).

URA targets to collects Shs 19,697.99bn (Shs19.6Tn) in the FY2020/21 and the projected domestic tax collection is Shs12,66.42bn (Shs12.6Tn) while revenue from international trade is projected at Shs7,435.44bn (7.4Tn), with projected tax refunds of Shs 400.88bn.

Having collected over 38.6% of this in the first half of the FY2020/21, Musinguzi said that now the Authority will concentrate on collecting the remaining Shs12,252.79bn (over 12.2Tn), which makes up  62.20% of the annual target, in the second half of the FY 2020/21 (January to June 2021).

“This is remarkable performance for which we thank our taxpayers and we believe that they will support us to meet this target,” he said,

URA in the same development also recovered some arrears worth Shs571.26bn since February.

Mr. Musinguzi made these remarks while briefing the media about the URA’s end of year performance at its headquarters in Kampala on Tuesday this week.

“We started FY2020/21 at the backdrop of a COVID-19 economic slump characterized by revenue shortfalls in April, May and June 2020. It has been very challenging both for the taxpayers and to URA. Nonetheless, we are steadfastly moving towards our annual target. Despite this significant revenue decline in April, May and June 2020 mainly due to the lockdown characterized by a slowdown in economic activities, we saw signs of recovery and improvement from July to November 2020,” he said