KAMPALA – The State Minister for Planning at Finance Ministry David Bahati has on June 25 educated citizens that paying tax noting that is not a punishment but rather a contribution to the growth of the country’s economy.
The minister was speaking today Tuesday 25 at the Kampala Budget breakfast 2019 that took place at Hotel Africana in Kampala aimed at breaking down the 2019/2020 National Budget.
The State Minister who represented the Minister of Finance Matia Kasaija noted that the interventions in the Budget are aimed at improving the wealth and welfare of all Ugandans.
“Our debt is sustainable. It is not for consumption but infrastructure development. We are not going to put our country in danger. We are depending on you to finance the budget and we are also ready to offer you the services you need,” he said.
In her opening remarks, the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) Commissioner General Ms. Doris Akol thanked Ugandans for paying their taxes.
“We have seen a growth in the country’s revenue and all this wouldn’t have been possible without the taxpayers. I applaud you for being compliant and urge you to continue being so,” Akol said.
She added that “We’ve seen remarkable growth in the revenue collection from the last financial year and we’re optimistic that it’s still growing tremendously.”
Ms. Akol noted that many sectors have grown including the Health sector which has been remarkable with the various renovations and construction of new health facilities across the country.
“We’ve also seen the growth of the Youth Lively program and the Women Empowerment programs that have given hope to over 100,000 youth and 10,000 women and it’s still growing,” Ms. Akol remarked.
She said that URA is looking forward to improving its revenue base with a key focus on different sectors including the manufacturing sector that they are hoping to grow in areas of Agro-processing & Industrial that was a key contributor to the country’s revenue last financial year.
“The Construction Sector saw a 98.3% growth in revenue from last year and this was greatly attributed to the VAT and Income Tax. We’re hoping to improve this further whereas the other key sector that greatly contributed to the country’s revenue was the Electrical, Gas and Water sector that grew at 68% from 10.8Billion last year to 28.9billion,” she said.
“There has been absolute growth in the size of the gov’t budget over the years. Unique in this year is the fact that gov’t wishes to collect more revenue domestically under the Domestic Resource Mobilization initiative (DRM) to fund her projects,” she added.
“URA will in the next financial year target New Digital tracking systems to enable taxpayers have better control of their businesses, balance their books & eliminate competition by cracking down on illicit activities & traders,” said URA boss.
For the Kampala Minister, Hon Betty Kamya, Ugandans should have no problems with paying taxes because taxes are as old as humanity.
Regional budget breakfasts 2019 took place in Arua, Lira, Soroti, Hoima and Kabale on Friday, June 21.
The ministry said that these breakfasts have been organized to give chance to the people in different regions of Uganda to know more about their budget for FY 2019/2020
