KAMPALA – Mr. John Rujoki Musinguzi, the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) Commissioner General has pledged to continue following the path of integrity through automation. He says this will make systems more transparent, accountable, and efficient.
“We are committing ourselves to the path of integrity. We are committing ourselves to the path of automation and you heard the testimony of the commissioner of IT. Every day, we are coming up with innovations trying to make systems more transparent, more accountable, more efficient, so that taxpayers can pay from the comfort of your areas,” said Musinguzi.
He was speaking during the URA Annual Thanksgiving this week.
During his speech, Musinguzi said the URA family is dedicating themselves to collecting enough revenue that will transform Uganda from being a borrower to becoming a lender.
“We will serve you honestly and it is difficult because temptations are real, a number of our brothers and sisters fail to cross that line of temptation and we try to support but when you don’t align, we also say it’s time for you to leave. We have lost quite a number, very sadly, quite a number of our brothers and sisters have failed to pass that mark,” he said in an emotional speech.
The URA boss said that the mission at hand for the taxman is much bigger than “what we can handle as you but we are dedicated to the task”.
“You heard our dear President speak repeatedly, how in the last 30 years we’ve been collecting between 10 and 12% 13% tax to GDP. This cannot make the nation to develop. For a nation to develop, you need to be collecting at least 18 or 20% of your GDP. Many developed nations of the world collect up to 30% to 40% of their GDP. No wonder they have enough to take care of their businesses and even sound to lend us.”
“So my brothers and sisters, this is the mission at hand. Yes, we have achieved the target and we thank the Lord, he has given us confidence, [and] he has told us it is possible but we need to do a lot more than that. So beginning with this year and going forward, we will not celebrate the budget because the Lord has already shown us it’s possible and we shall not go back, but going forward, we shall be celebrating the growth of our tax to GDP. So in the last three years, God has helped us move from number 12, to be specific it was at 11.99% when I joined, the first statistics I saw, this financial year, we have crossed 14% and we thank the Lord, but we are trusting the same Lord who has brought us this far Ebenezer that for the next 2, 3, 4 years ahead, we shall cross to 18% and it is possible,” he declared.
He also said that URA has developed a strategic plan in sync with the Domestic Revenue Mobilization strategies which will lead to the attainment of revenue targets.
The taxman is vigorously pursuing the integration of systems and processes through projects such as the Integrated Service Support Project which provides 24-hour support to clients through different technological modes.
Systems such as the Electronic Fiscal Receipting System and Digital Tax Stamp, Bonded Warehouse Integrated Management System are expected to further leverage technology to ease the processes and stock management for clients while reducing the process losses for URA in carrying out its mandate to meet the targets.
Rujoki pledged that URA is innovatively taking all measures to ease the process for clients in meeting their obligations to pay taxes by ensuring transparency and efficiency and he encouraged all Ugandans to own their role in contributing to national development.
