Latest revenue figures close to target boosted by mobile taxes

October 25, 2018 in Finance by Editor

October 25, 2018—October 25, 2019—Uganda’s domestic revenues were close to target, amounting to UGX1,254.9 billion (about $333 million) with a short fall of only UGX6.6 billion (nearly $1.6 million) according to the finance ministry.

This shortfall originated from the under performance in tax revenues which totaled to UGX1,223.1 billion registering a shortfall of UGX 9.9 billion and thereby offsetting the surplus recorded in non-tax revenues.

Tax revenue collections were affected by international trade taxes whose collections were UGX51.6 billion $13.5 million) lower than the projected target of UGX578.5 billion for the month.

This was due to lower than projected taxable imports during the period that affected both import duty and VAT on imports. Shortfalls of UGX 37.7 billion and UGX21.7 billion were registered in VAT on imports and import duty respectively.

Direct and indirect taxes amounted to UGX364.6 billion and UGX335.1 billion, performing above their respective targets by 2 percent and 10 pc respectively. The performance in direct taxes mainly resulted from surpluses received in Pay As You Earn (PAYE) and earnings from withholding tax on treasury bills while indirect taxes benefited from surpluses on the mobile money levy and phone talk time.

Subscribers now pay a 0.5 percent levy on some mobile money transactions and a daily UGX200 tax to use social media platforms.

Meanwhile, preliminary data indicates that Government expenditure during the month totalled to UGX1,393.5 billion, which translates into a performance of 65 pc against the programmed expenditure. This mainly resulted from lower than planned external project disbursements.

Current expenditures in the month were UGX906.1 billion against the program of UGX1,068.3 billion. This mainly resulted from front-loading of the quarter one expenditure in the first two months of the Quarter coupled with the downward revision of domestic interest payable in the period.

Development expenditures in the month performed at only 43 pc of the program (UGX1,039.2 billion). This was on account of lower than anticipated external project disbursements and absorption of monies in the external project accounts.