By Moses Kyeyune.
Members of Parliament on the committee of budget have asked the government to implement a robust revenue mobilization strategy to improve revenue collection.
The MP’s are concerned that failures in the country’s revenue effort have significantly overstretched the capacity to service debts on one hand, while limiting the availability of discretionary resources meant to finance medium term projects.
In the proposed 34.3 trillion shillings budget for the next financial year, domestic revenue is estimated at 18.4 trillion of which 17.9 trillion is tax revenue and 521 billion is non-tax revenue.
The MP’s are further concerned that Uganda’s tax efforts have not been matching the economic growth over the years due to a stagnation in tax collection.
In the last financial year for instance\, government registered a shortfall of 555 billion shillings out of the targeted 15 trillion.
The committee has also recommended a value for money audit on the Uganda Revenue Authority to ascertain the actual cause of shortfalls.