UGANDA, Lyantonde | Real Muloodi News | Reduced revenue collection is hindering several districts that have missed collection targets due to factors including the COVID-19 epidemic.
Many local governments’ operations have seen budget cuts due to a shortage of resources. Local revenue accounts for around 2% of a district’s yearly budget, and its inability to be realised impacts the execution of locally supported activities.
Lyantonde District expected to earn USh179 million from local taxes in the 2020/2021 fiscal year, but only received USh71 million owing to the consequences of COVID-19 confinement measures.
Consequently, due to a shortage of money, the building of Lyakajula Secondary School in Lyakajula Sub-county and Kashagama Secondary School in Kashagama Sub-county was halted.
Reduced revenue collection also hampered the development of several community access roads in the district, which are now in disrepair.
Lyantonde, like other districts, is supported by conditional and unconditional subsidies from the central government and donors, as well as locally produced money through taxes such as property rates, fees, licenses, and market dues.
Mr Alfred Mutebi, the vice-chairperson of Lyantonde District, stated that the district’s revenue has decreased due to the ongoing outbreak of Foot-and-Mouth (FMD) disease, resulting in the closure of the closure cattle markets.
“Lyantonde wouldn’t be doing poorly in tax collection, but we are disturbed by FMD which saw our biggest cattle markets closed,” Mr Mutebi said.
Lyantonde’s most important revenue sources are cattle markets. Kyemamba and Kashagama marketplaces, for example, earn USh34 million each month.
The Way Forward
Mr Mutebi, on the other hand, stated that the district had constituted a revenue committee to assist in identifying new possible revenue streams. He stated that the district would soon begin renting out part of its property, including residences, to increase the local tax base.
Mr Edmund Ntimba, Kabale’s Chief Administrative Officer, stated that poor local tax collection due to the COVID-19 lockout impacted service delivery in Kabale since technocrats were unable to supervise ongoing central government-funded initiatives.
Despite the difficulties, Mr Ntimba stated that the government completed many government projects, including the Buhara Seed School, Kitooma and Buramba Health Centre IIIs, and pit latrines at several primary schools.
Mr Robert Mbabazi Kakwerere, the chairperson of Rukiga District LC5, stated that inadequate revenue collection had not hindered service delivery in their region since the federal government funded various initiatives.
Mr Dunstan Balaba, the Tororo District Chief Administrative Officer, stated that most locally supported projects had stopped owing to insufficient money in the previous fiscal years.
Mr Balaba stated that before the COVID-19 outbreak, Tororo District had expected to collect USh2.3 billion in local income but only received USh938.8 million.
“We have running projects, but unfortunately, we have recorded a drastic decline in local revenue collection. Can you imagine that we held a budget conference and we realised that the collection had dropped to USh695 million?” Mr Balaba added.
“You will be surprised that I pay my district councillors USh50,000 per sitting and transport refund of USh30,000 of which sometimes they sit in arrears. Even the previous councillors left the council while demanding their arrears. Thank God that most of them never made it back otherwise some of them would take us to court,” he said.
In addition, after the country’s coronavirus epidemic in March 2020, the portion of the national budget given to local government programs decreased from 10% the previous fiscal year, to 9%.
The funds were decreased to allow the government to combat the epidemic, which has killed over 3,300 people and infected over 145,900 others.
Mr David Kennedy Odongo, chairman of the Alebtong LC5 and chairperson of all nine district chairpersons in the Lango Sub-region, stated that the government could not improve service delivery due to budget constraints.
“Meeting expectations with a meager budget is next to impossible,” he said.
The Katakwi District LC5 chairman, Mr Geoffrey Omolo, said: “2020 and 2021 have been the years of gambling. We hope this global pandemic is brought under complete control.”
Mr Simon Nangiro, head of the Moroto Development Forum, stated that, despite being affected by COVID-19, municipalities and town councils gather local tax and send it to Kampala following policy.
“And what is brought back to help in the implementation of the projects at the districts and the municipalities is very little,” he said.
Mr Ismail Mohamed, the mayor of Moroto Municipal Council, said: “We are appealing to the government to allow us to utilise the revenue that we collect so that we can be able to implement some of the projects in our area.”
Mr Brian Kaboyo, the mayor of Hoima City, stated that it is challenging to undertake activities that generate local revenue votes.
Hoima City had planned to earn USh500 million from local revenue in the fourth quarter of 2020/2021, owing to COVID-19, they only received USh200 million.
“We use local revenue to collect garbage in the city and you can’t suspend such an activity. We have decided to adjust on some of the planned activities to see that we continue operating,” Mr Kaboyo said.
Mr Adolf Magoba, the head of Bigodi Town Council in Kamwenge District, stated that tourism was their primary tax basis. Tourists cancelled their trips during the peak of the epidemic.
He stated that before to COVID-19, they could collect roughly USh7.2m in a quarter, but now they only get between USh1m to USh1.5m.
“Our town council largely depends on local revenue collected from local tourism because we are bordering Kibale National Park. We now depend on emergency funds we lobby from different ministries,” Mr Magoba added.
Floods and the COVID-19 epidemic, according to Mr David Kor, head of Kanara Town Council in Ntoroko District, impacted their local tax collection.
Mr Kor said that fish markets that used to bring in USh12 million in a quarter now only bring in USh2 million.
“For loading and off-loading at the landing sites, we used to collect USh9m but it has now reduced to between USh1m and USh2.5m,” he said.
Mr Aron Turahi, the Isingiro District LC5, stated that council meetings could not be funded due to constrained finances.
“The district public accounts committee could not meet because they are funded by local revenue, and the district land board sat only twice last year which affected service delivery,” he said.
Mr Sylvester Agubanshongorera, the chairperson of Rubirizi District LC5, recognised that inadequate revenue collection had hampered service delivery.
“We did not do capacity building, we are facing difficulties in trying to maintain our roads,” he said.
Ms Jemmimah Tumwijukye Buhanda, the Sheema District LC5 chairperson, said: “The district is facing challenges in paying councillors’ allowances because 20 percent of local revenue is used for paying them, monitoring of government projects and maintaining feeder roads.”
Technology & Innovation
However, Gulu City Council has begun collecting income digitally. The policy attempts to reduce corruption among authorities and increase revenue collection, which has decreased dramatically since the nation entered the COVID-19 lockdown in March 2020.
Gulu City Mayor Alfred Okwonga stated that the new effort would spend less on human resources.
“Human resources usually consume more than half of the revenue collected leading to poor service delivery to the community. We are looking at alternatives that are easily accessible to taxpayers and the tax collectors,” he said.
Mr Christopher Opio Atekere, chairman of the Gulu LC5, said that sub-county and parish heads had forged invoices to enrich themselves.
According to Mr Walter Akena, a researcher, local governments can minimise unethical activities during tax collection, but the authorities need to generate other income sources to improve supply.
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