The Uganda Registration Services Bureau (URSB) collected a total of shs45.87 billion in non-tax revenue between July 2021 and April, 7, 2022 against a target of shs45.57 billion representing a 100.6% achievement for the financial year 2021/22.
This was revealed by URSB’s Registrar General Mercy K Kainobwisho while appearing before Parliament’s Legal and Parliamentary affairs committee on Thursday to discuss the agency’s ministerial policy statement for fiscal year 2022/23.
“Despite the effects of Covid19 that slowed down the economy, we have managed to grow our non- tariff revenue collections by 48% for the period July to March of financial year 2021/22. URSB collected shs45.34 billion in the first three quarters of the financial year, accounting for 99.5% of the shs 45.57 billion annual target. Our collections were shs 45.78 billion as at April , 7, 2022,” Kainobwisho said.
She attributed the growth in collections to continuous service delivery improvement, automation of registration processes, zero tolerance to corruption and a keen focus on good governance and leadership.
The Registrar General told parliament that key achievements included legal and policy reforms, National Intellectual Property Policy implementation, automation of registration processes such as online filing of annual returns, online marriage registration system, progress in use of security interest and the operationalization of regional offices in major districts including Mbale, Arua, Gulu, Mbarara and Masaka.
She told the committee that during the period, URSB registered 14,295 new companies, 19,141 business names, 39 414 debentures, 3,364 security interest notices, 4,022 marriage returns, 505 customary marriages and 1,976 local trademarks among others.
Kainobwisho also listed some unfunded priorities for the financial year 2021/22 that hindered URSB’s operations which she said included the furnishing of the Uganda Business Facilitation Centre(UBFC), rent arrears, payment for maintenance of the URSB online platforms, operationalization of two regional offices in the Albertine region and Eastern Uganda and mass business registration project.
The chairperson of the committee and MP Gomba West Robinah Rwakojo commended URSB for the continued good performance and pledged the committee’s support to ensure non-tariff revenue collections grow further
“URSB is one of the star performing institutions and we are always happy to interact with you. We are glad to note that your contribution to non- tariff revenue keeps growing every year and we will support you to increase this,”Mrs Rwakojo said.
Wilfred Nuwagaba, the Ndorwa East MP who is also a member of the committee however, appealed to URSB to explore modalities of working with Saccos in order to increase uptake of the security interest in movable property registry system that will increase access to credit by ordinary citizens.
