Luwero district has registered a 33% increase in local revenue collection due to migration from a manual to a digital system.
In the 2022/23 financial year, Luwero with support from the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, Local Government Finance Commission and World Bank enrolled in the Integrated Revenue Administration System (IRAS).
The IRAS is a web and mobile application platform that aids the local government in the collection of local revenue from registration, assessment, billing and payments among others.
Now according to the report released by Patrick Barasa, the Luwero District Chief Finance Officer, local revenue collection grew by 710 million shillings from shillings of 2,140,746,092 in 2021/22 to 2,850,218,483 shillings in the 2022/23 financial year. This represents a 33% increment something he attributed to the introduction of IRAS.
Erastus Kibirango, the LC 5 Chairman of Luwero district explains that the Integrated Revenue Administration System has helped them to eliminate tax leakages and improve efficiency in collecting revenue hence an increment.
Kibirango adds that through the system, they have been able to carry out mass business registration in 18 lower local governments in the district and a total of 34,049 taxpayers registered on the system. He says this has made the collection of the revenue easy because all the taxpayers known and they can be followed for compliance with payments.
However, Christine Nakabugo, the District female councilor for Kikyusa town council asked the district to review the assessment of business because some traders are complaining of over-taxation. Nakabugo explains that in Kikyusa town council, some small-scale traders complained that they paid high taxes in the financial compared to those running bigger businesses.
There are also complaints of network failures on IRAS from sub counties that include Makulubita, Kamira, Kikyusa and Bamunanika sub county.
But Isaac Wampamba the District Secretary for finance says that they have asked the sub counties and town councils to constitute tax appeal committees to handle the complaints to ensure that traders are charged fairly.
Wampamba says that they are also planning to buy better gadgets to ensure reliable network connection and enhance revenue collection.
Currently the sub counties, town and district council have already passed supplementary budgets to utilize the excess funds received in local revenue collection.
In the financial year, 2023/24 the district expects to collect 4.3 billion shillings in local revenue.
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