The Uganda Registration Service Bureau (URSB), the Ministry of Local Government, Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) and Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) have partnered to deal widen the tax base by tapping into the informal sector under a collaboration called the Taxpayer Register Expansion Program (TREP).
During the budget speech for the financial year 2013/2014, the Minister for Finance provided for a collaborative implementation framework through which URA has been able to work closely with URSB and KCCA to identify and expand the taxpayer’s base through tax collection from small businesses. In 2014/15, the second phase of the program was further extended to Wakiso district urban authorities.
TREP is meant to bring registration services nearer to the clients through the mobile offices and to reduce the time taken to formally register a business. Four years ago, the registration process used to take one month but has since been reduced to eight hours currently.
This is attributed to the various stop shops spread all over major cities.
Speaking at a press briefing at Hotel Africana on Thursday morning, the URA Commissioner General Doris Akol said that the program has so far achieved UGX 47.6 Bn shillings in revenue since their joint operations.
During the period July to June 2016, KCCA and URA embarked on a registration of new businesses which saw more than 134,332 Ugandans added on the tax register.
‘’We urge all business owners to visit any of the one stop shops to register and pay the taxes, fees, dueS and also formalize their businesses . It should be noted that the government is not collecting any new taxes,’’ she said.