URA registers shortfall of Shs 499 billion in first quarter of financial year

The Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) has announced that it has suffered a shortfall of Shs 499 billion in the first quarter of this financial year.

The revelation was made during a news conference.

URA Commissioner General, John Musinguzi, explained that the tax body only collected Shs 4.45 trillion, against its target of Shs 4.95 trillion

According to URA’s revenue performance report for quarter one, domestic revenue collections which largely explain the shortfall, were below the target of Shs 3 trillion.

Musinguzi however said that the tax body collected net revenue of Shs4.459 trillion in the first quarter of  2021/2022, posting a growth of 9.57% in comparison with same period last year.

"In nominal terms, this reflects a growth in revenue of Shs389.47 billion. It should however be noted that, the outturn of the first quarter is short of its target of Shs 4.959 trillion by Shs 499.49 billion," he said.

Having achieved a growth in revenue of 14.99% in 2020/2021, Musinguzi said URA is expected to collect Shs 22.4 trillion in 2021/2022 which is Shs3.1 trillion over and above last year’s collections.

Sectoral contribution to revenue

In terms of sectors, Musinguzi said 74% of the revenue was generated from the top five sectors which include: manufacturing (Shs1.067 trillion); financial activities (Shs353.66 billion); ICT  (Shs338.36 billion) and public administration (Shs202.98 billion ). (

"On a year to year basis, the arts, entertainment and recreation sector grew by 97.24% mainly due to arrears recovery of shs 7.22 billion from the gaming activities; Water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation activities grew by 64.97% due to payment of arrears for the period between February 2021 and August 2021 worth shs 9.62 billion paid in the July to September," he said.