Increase tax base, not the tax burden

A woman browses the internet. FILE PHOTO 

By Editor

At a critical time like today when the government is intent on squeezing every coin from every quarter to raise revenue to finance its programmes, a story of a government body being accused of tax evasion, is the last news the public would want to hear.

According to the Sunday Monitor of July 22, Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), the statutory body responsible for licensing, monitoring, and regulating civil aviation operations in the country, is at the centre of tax evasion allegations. The government body is accused of not remitting to Uganda Revenue Authority (URA), a rental income tax amounting to Shs11.3 billion for the last four years since 2014. This is absurd.
Interestingly, URA, which should have been more concerned about this development, is itself blamed for not taking appropriate action. This occurred even after it was petitioned on the matter early this year although it insists it is investigating the matter.

This case, perhaps among many others, should awaken the government. On many media platforms and other places, government officials have made it their pet subject to challenge critics of Mobile Money and social media taxes to stop opposing taxation without providing alternatives on how government can raise revenue to finance its budget.

Critics of OTT and social media taxes have often told government there are better avenues through which it can raise even more revenue without continuing to overburden the public. One such avenue is the need for government to review tax exemptions it has given some investors or businesses.

The government is not interested. Besides, calls on government to trim the bloated public administration don’t seem to find listening ears.

Yet the high costs on public administration, including on a Parliament bursting with 456 members, political appointees – Resident District Commissioners, presidential advisers, etc - who are largely unproductive excess manpower just draining the national Treasury without making any contribution of revenue value.

There is also the question of the large motor convoys provided to VIPs in the country. In a poor country like Uganda and which is not at war, a lot of money could be saved to boost government revenue if the amount of security protection to our leaders were drastically downsized.
Then agreeably, the issue of tax evasion remains a thorny matter URA must confront.

There are claims that many big businesses or organisations hardly pay tax. Yet URA is obliged to monitor and ensure that they remit their taxes without fail. If true, this double standard must stop.

There is fear among compliant taxpayers that the case of CAA could just be a tip of the iceberg. This does not augur well for the economy nor the few compliant taxpayers.