URA Fulfils President's Directive on Electronic Tax System

URA Fulfils President's Directive on Electronic Tax System

GOVT-TRADER NEGOTIATIONS

As part of the ongoing negotiations between the Government and traders over the Electronic Fiscal

Receipting and Invoicing Solution (EFRIS), a system used to collect the 18% value- added tax (VAT), President Yoweri Museveni directed URA to take services, close to the tax payers

The President says taking services close to people ensures tax education not only on EFRIS, but also other services.

"URA has come up with a plan to open taxpayer support centres in key areas where we have significant numbers of our taxpayers so that we are able to serve them better," Rujoki said.

The standoff over EFRIS Rujoki said, has revealed a big gap between the taxpayers and the tax collectors, and that the gap has been exploited for negative reasons

"We want to bridge the knowledge gap between us and the taxpayers. We have started with this office

today, and we will open other four regional centres in key business areas, such as Gulu, Mbale and Mbarara, in order to be close to our taxpayers," Rujoki said. He added that the services are purely free and are not limited to taxation alone.

"We realised that even the taxes which have been here as long as 30 years like VAT, many of our taxpayers do not know them, how they work, how they are calculated, how to file returns, and this is because most of them (taxpayers) use agents to file for them returns and they charge them. But we

want to empower taxpayers in all those areas and if a trader does not know how to file the returns, instead of incurring costs, we shall have staff dedicated to offer this support," Rujoki said.