URA Registers UGX 179b Surplus for July Collections

Uganda Revenue Authority - URA registered a surplus in tax collections for July 2020 after some people and corporations that had suspended payments during the Coronavirus (COVID-19) lockdown paid up.

URA collected 1.2 trillion Shillings in July 2020 against a target of 1.02 trillion Shillings – registering a surplus of 179 billion Shillings for the month, according to the reporting by the Ministry of Finance in July performance of the economy report.

“Monthly revenue collections were higher than the target for the month partly because of spillovers from the previous financial year” said the Ministry of Finance. The surplus in July is a promising start for the government for the 2020/21 financial year especially when the government struggles to collect money much of the second half of the 2019/20 financial year.

The Ministry of Finance says in that the July 2020 revenue target was derived from the target of Shs 20.8 trillion shillings for the financial year as passed by parliament in the approved budget.

The report says the performance was explained by the payment of some taxes that were supposed to be paid in 2019/20 financial year but spilt over into July 2020. The taxes had delayed due to delays in filing for taxes of imported goods as the movement was restricted during the lockdown –which explains the performance of international trade taxes.

In order to help businesses affected by lockdown, the government adopted a policy of tax deferment where businesses were asked to pay later. Both international taxes and domestic taxes registered surplus, with taxes on international trade and transactions registering the biggest surplus.

Performance in domestic taxes, the report notes also benefited from the pick-up in economic activity in July following the easing of lockdown restrictions.

According to the Stanbic Bank purchasing managers’ index (PMI) for August indicated that upon lifting of the Coronavirus restrictions, business confidence picked up immediately. More companies increased on their production. The survey, however, said many companies had not started bringing back laid-off staff.

Non-Tax Revenue (NTR) collections, which is money from such things as fees for passports, driving permits, were lower than the target for the month.

NTR was 55.5 billion Shillings in July 2020 against a target of 75.20 billion Shillings. This is because most of the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) that offer services on which NTR is generated had not yet resumed operations to full capacity.