Earlier in March, Museveni terminated the contract of commissioner general Doris Akol and appointed John Musinguzi Rujoki as the new boss for the tax body. During his Heroes day message at State House on Tuesday Museveni said he’s tired of corrupt people whom he called parasites in his government building personal wealth rather than building the economy.
Museveni challenged URA to increase the tax-to-GDP ratio from 14.3 per cent, saying this was the lowest in Africa where other countries are collecting 18 per cent. In the 2020/21 financial year, URA is tasked with collecting at least Shs 20 trillion.
Museveni said the tax body must be particularly hard on rental tax. He noted that there are people with 40 houses, all occupied but are claiming they can’t pay taxes because they are building other houses.
“We are saying pay tax per house. This is the argument,” he said.
Last week, the government hired a USA firm, RippleNami Inc to help map all the landlords in the country and link them to the tax identification register. This will help the government catch landlords that have been cheating taxes on the income from their houses.
Meanwhile, the president said that he was happy with the allocation of Shs 256bn to help in Emyoga development that is funding young people with talent and skills to develop things but lack financing. He said the money in that area will be increased. It is not yet clear how the youths will receive the money.