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KAMPALA – The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry Of Finance, Ramathan Ggoobi, has reiterated that the tax burden in Uganda is not too high.
“Uganda has one of the lowest tax burdens in the region, contrary to some views that the tax burden in Uganda is too high,” he said.
Ggoobi, who is also the country’s Secretary to the Treasury, made the remarks on Friday (June 28) during the meeting with the Uganda Parliamentary Press Association (UPPA) on the sh72.136 trillion budget for the financial year 2024/25 at Hotel Africana in Kampala.
According to a statement from the ministry, this meeting was part of the activities for the national budget month for 2024/25.
The 2022 findings of the Heritage Foundation placed Uganda in the second position among the lowest tax burden countries in the East African region at 11.8% after Tanzania with 11.7%.
Uganda was ranked 140th in the world out of 170 countries.
Ggoobi also said the media should educate Ugandans about the importance of paying taxes, adding that the ministry and Uganda Revenue Authority will come up with a well-packaged tax education program as part of the efforts to mobilise enough revenue to run the government and ensure the economy works for all the citizens.
He used his speech to highlight the seven priorities of the 2024/25 budget, including investing in the people through health, education, water, sanitation and hygiene, maintenance of roads, construction of a few critical ones and rehabilitation of the metre-gauge railway and construction of the standard gauge railway.
Others are electricity transmission, peace and security, investing in wealth creation such as the Parish Development and Emyooga, containing natural disasters and meeting regional and international obligations.
“Every Ugandan should participate in activities which bring them wealth,” Ggoobi said.
The budget for the 2024/25 financial year, which begins on July 1, comprises recurrent expenditure of sh18.9 trillion and development expenditure of sh34.7 trillion, with the total amount including statutory expenditure standing at sh72.136 trillion.
However, Parliament was recently recalled from recess to reconsider the Appropriations Bill 2024 after declining to give his assent to it, citing several issues.
It will, therefore, sit on Tuesday (July 2) to review the 2024/25 budget afresh after it reallocated sh750.47b from the Government priorities without the Executive’s approval.
During the consideration of the Appropriations Bill, the House made amendments that suppressed the Treasury Operations budget by over sh400b.
Accountability
As part of the accountability, Ggoobi said the installed capacity of electricity generation has increased from 595MW in the 2010/11 financial year to over 2000MW in the 2023/24 financial year.
“The share of the paved national road network has nearly doubled from 3,121km in the financial year 2012/13 to 6,133km in the financial year 2022/23,” he said.
He added that the national backbone infrastructure expanded from 1,380km in the financial year 2010/11 to 4,300km in the financial year 2022/23, which increased internet penetration across the country.
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