KIKUUBE, March 26, 2024 – Kikuube District Local Government officials have been advised to take advantage of the Integrated Revenue Administration System [IRAS] to enhance local revenue collection.
IRAS is an online and mobile application platform that enables district local governments, municipalities, and cities to collect revenue through registration, assessment, billing, payment awareness raising for taxpayers, and connecting residents to local governments.
According to James Ogwang, a Finance Analyst at the Local Government Finance Commission [LGFC], an autonomous government agency that among others advises local governments on appropriate tax levels to be levied, IRAS has improved revenue mobilisation in local governments that are utilising it.
Ogwang says IRAS helps to minimise leakages, and under declarations of revenue that were common in the previous manual revenue collection system.
Days ago, LGFC officials who were in Bunyoro Sub-region to monitor how the districts there were managing revenues expressed concern that the manual system currently used by Kikuube district was unacceptable since it is open to abuse as officials physically receive hard cash from taxpayers
On his part, Joseph Lomonya, also from LGFC pledged to enroll Kikuube District Local Government is enrolled in the automated revenue collection system to reduce chances of mismanaging local revenue.
Lomonya said Kikuube District Local Government has the potential to collect more local revenue using the IRAS, adding that by 2025-2026, most district local governments should be able to collect revenue of at Shs 1 trillion each financial year.
In 2019, the European Union with support from the World Bank developed the IRAS to purposely cover all local government revenue sources. The system was first piloted in Nansana Municipality, Fort Portal City, and Gulu City. As of October 2023, a total of 124 local governments comprising nine cities, 21 municipalities, and 94 districts had been rolled on the IRAS.
Meanwhile, Peter Banura, the Kikuube District Chairperson welcomed the initiative of digitalising local revenue collection, adding that as district leaders, they have put in place measures to boost revenue collection.
He said the business community has been urged to embrace voluntary revenue payment, adding that several businesspeople in his district have been forced to pay taxes.
However, Banura appealed to the central government to always send enough funds back to the districts, and in time, for the districts to be able to offer better services to the people.
In the last financial year 2023/2024 the district planned to collect Shs 1.5 billion but only managed to collect Shs 800 million. He attributed the low revenue collection to nonpayment of taxes by some companies, traders, and corruption.
https://thecooperator.news/nebbi-municipality-launches-iras-to-enhance-revenue-collection/
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