Barclays joins URA electronic payment platform

May 11, 2018 in Business, Companies, Finance, Technology & Telecoms by Editor

Akol (left) said electronic payments will help URA meet its revenue targets and Jha added that the service is part of the bank’s mission to increase customer convenience.

May 11, 2018—Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) has added Barclays Bank Uganda to its electronic-payment system as the previous fashion of paying in cash fades away.

“With this new system, tax payers can pay taxes 24/7 from anywhere so that they can concentrate on developing their businesses instead of wasting time and money paying taxes manually. This will help us to hit our target of UGX15 trillion ($4 billion) set for this financial year,” Doris Akol, the URA Commissioner General said on Thursday.

Barclays customers and others will be able to pay their taxes, non-tax revenue and any other statutory fees using their Visa, MasterCard or American Express cards using any internet enabled device.

Rakesh Jha, the Barclays Bank managing director said, the introduction of the electronic system is in line with the bank’s mission to help its customers do business with ease, convenience and at an affordable cost. “In addition to existing payment solutions, we have added a new service offer for tax payers that ascertains a payment channel that not only reduces costs, but is safe from fraud,” he said.

Tests have been going on since March 2018 and to date UGX80 million has already been collected through the system. To use it, a taxpayer has to visit the URA website on the E-payment system and request for a payment registration number. Customers, using a device that has internet can then enter relevant Visa or MasterCard details. Barclays will then debit the payment to the URA account and URA will be alerted through an electronic receipt.

So far, five banks and other financial service providers have signed up to the URA platform.