Kiruhura introduces cow dung fees as hunt for revenue intensifies

Kiruhura District Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) Charles Nsubuga Kiberu has instructed all sub-county chiefs and town clerks to start collecting a cow dung loading fee “to boost local revenue collections.”

In a September 23, 2024, circular, Nsubuga instructed the leaders to start collecting the newly imposed cow dung loading fees.

On Sunday, he admitted issuing the letter which confirmed a fee guiding tool that indicates Shs10, 000 will be collected from each pick-up cow dung load (about 1 ton).

“For a Canter lorry (three tons) Shs30,000 will be charged a tipper lorry [Forward] ( five tones) Shs50,000, Fuso lorry (seven tons) Shs70,000 and a Shs100, 000 for a Sino truck (10 tons),” per the Kiruhura District council approved revenue enhancement and charge policy for FY2024/2025.

Nsubuga has appealed to district officers “to take this matter as crucial,” noting that revenue collection tickets are already available in the CAO’s office.

“It is good that the people of Kiruhura identified this source of revenue considering the many vehicles that were taking cow dung from the district,” he explained.

In context, a Fuso truck of cow dung is sold in a range of Shs100,000 to Shs150,000.

According to Nsubuga, introducing charges on cow dung loads is similar to revenue enhancement efforts by other local governments with specific charges on items such as sand, lime and food crops like matooke (bananas).

Besides, Nsubuga said, heavy trucks flocking Kiruhura for cow dung affect road durability even as the district seeks more funding for proper service delivery.

“I do not have statistics of how much cow dung gets out of the district but it is too much. This is more of our mineral that goes and never comes back. So, charging fees it is the only way we can benefit from it,” he added.

Sanga Town Council Mayor Safari Mugyenyi said cow dung has been an untapped resource for long.

“Several vehicles take the cow dung to neighbouring Isingiro and Bushenyi districts for manure in banana and coffee plantations. We are becoming innovative in enhancing sources of funding,” Mugyenyi told Monitor.

In 2022, Kiruhura District’s local revenue collections stood at Shs800 million, far less than its ambitious annual target of at least Shs2.5 billion.

The trend of under collection has relatively persisted as compared with the target.