{"id":70887,"date":"2023-11-26T08:14:55","date_gmt":"2023-11-26T05:14:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kfm.co.ug\/?p=70887"},"modified":"2023-11-26T11:46:02","modified_gmt":"2023-11-26T08:46:02","slug":"shs160b-lost-annually-in-tax-breaks-says-ura","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/shs160b-lost-annually-in-tax-breaks-says-ura\/","title":{"rendered":"Shs160b lost annually in tax breaks, says URA"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Deogratius Wamala<\/strong><\/p>\n

Uganda is faced with a difficult task <\/span>of meeting ambitious revenue tar<\/span>gets while juggling the complex al- <\/span>lure of tax incentives it uses to at<\/span>tract investments to drive its econom<\/span>ic growth and employment of its young <\/span>population.<\/span><\/p>\n

In order to attract significant foreign di<\/span>rect investment,the country introduced <\/span>10-year tax exemptions for businesses <\/span>located in industrial parks. <\/span>However, economists are concerned <\/span>that these incentives may have the oppo<\/span>site effect of what the country intended, <\/span>as they \u201cuplift firms more than the coun<\/span>try itself.\u201d Uganda\u2019s economic narrative <\/span>has been marked by persistent budget<\/span>ary deficits, affecting essential public <\/span>services, public servant salaries, and the <\/span>stability of the national currency.<\/span><\/p>\n


The urgency to break free from this cy<\/span>cle has forced the country to turn its at<\/span>tention towards its taxman, with high <\/span>revenue targets. The broader objective <\/span>is to reduce the nation\u2019s dependence on <\/span>debt, a phenomenon that has increas<\/span>ingly strained the country\u2019s economic <\/span>resilience.<\/span><\/p>\n

For instance,in the 2022\/2023 financial <\/span>year (FY), the government\u2019s fiscal opera- <\/span>tions resulted in a deficit of Shs10.1t or <\/span>5.5 percent of gross domestic product <\/span>(GDP). While this surpassed initial projec<\/span>tions, it is a marked improvement from <\/span>7.4 percent recorded in FY2021\/2022, <\/span>underscoring the government\u2019s stead- <\/span>fast commitment to fiscal consolidation.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis deficit was strategically financed <\/span>through a mix of domestic and external <\/span>borrowing. As a result, the public debt <\/span>stock rose from $20.99b (Shs79.2t) in <\/span>June 2022 to $23.66b (Shs89.3t) by June <\/span>2023,\u201d national treasury data shows.<\/span><\/p>\n

The main concern is that some of <\/span>Uganda\u2019s largest companies are alleg<\/span>edly abusing tax breaks, particularly <\/span>tax holidays and accelerated deprecia<\/span>tion tax incentives for firms operating more than 50km from Kampala. Some of these entities are suspected of leveraging tax havens where they are domiciled and also exploiting available tax incentives to manipulate their operations positively. More details in today’s copy of the Sunday Monitor<\/strong><\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Deogratius Wamala Uganda is faced with a difficult task of meeting ambitious revenue targets while juggling the complex al- lure of tax incentives it uses to attract investments to drive its economic growth and employment of its young population. In order to attract significant foreign direct investment,the country introduced 10-year tax exemptions for businesses located in industrial parks. However, economists are concerned that these incentives may have the opposite effect of what the country intended, as they \u201cuplift firms more than the country itself.\u201d Uganda\u2019s economic narrative has been marked by persistent budgetary deficits, affecting essential public services, public servant salaries, and the stability of the national currency. The urgency to break free from this cycle has forced the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":68194,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","filesize_raw":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"1","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"1","show_view_counter":"1","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"0","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":"","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":"","hide":""},"jnews_social_meta":{"fb_title":"","fb_description":"","fb_image":"","twitter_title":"","twitter_description":"","twitter_image":""},"jnews_override_counter":{"override_view_counter":"0","view_counter_number":"0","override_share_counter":"0","share_counter_number":"0","override_like_counter":"0","like_counter_number":"0","override_dislike_counter":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1211],"class_list":["post-70887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-ura"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70887"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70887\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}