Traders start benefiting from Efris penalty waivers
A section of traders pose for a group photo with URA commissioner general John Musinguzi after getting their Efris penalty waiver certificates in Kampala on May 27, 2024. PHOTO/COURTESY
What you need to know:
- URA sensitized traders on how Efris works, its advantages, and how VAT is calculated, per President Museveni’s directive.
Traders operating in downtown Kampala and other markets across the country will have penalties that were slapped on them by the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) over non-compliance with the Electronic Fiscal Receipting and Invoicing System (EFRIS) waived.
The five-day waiving, which started May 27 will end Friday, according to URA Commissioner General John Musinguzi.
On Monday, Musinguzi told reporters at URA’s headquarters that about 50 traders had benefited with more coming on board.
“We are reversing penalties we had slapped on people who were not using Efris to issue receipts. We invoked certain sections in the law which allow us as URA to review taxes and upon realising that it was an inappropriate tax, we reverse it,” he said.
“The penalty was issued without sufficient knowledge and therefore issued in error,” he added.
Musinguzi noted that they will unveil the total number of traders who have benefited from the exercise and how much URA has lost in the forms of taxes on Friday.
Earlier, Musinguzi spoke to traders before handing them certificates of clearance from Efris penalties, informing them that the system was rushed to be implemented.
“The technology initiatives that we are coming up with are for the good of our nation Uganda. Efris is one of them, digital tax stamp is another and rental tax management system. So, URA is deliberately deploying a number of technologies for the purpose of efficiently assessing taxes for our national development,” he maintained.
Musinguzi admitted that there must be a transitional change of people learning and appreciating new technologies before URA imposes them.
Business owners seat outside their locked shops during a traders' strike against unfair taxes and URA's Electronic Fiscal Receipting and Invoicing Solution (EFRIS) system on April 16, 2024 in Kampala. PHOTO/MICHEAL KAKUMIRIZI
On Monday, URA sensitized traders on how Efris works, its advantages, and how VAT is calculated, per President Museveni’s directive.
“For those of you who have been engaged and known how Efris works, and how Vat is calculated and what the law says, we expect a high standard from you going forward,” he emphasized.
Background
The development comes a few weeks after President Museveni together with different officials and leadership of URA met these traders in Kololo where he among others ordered URA to waive these penalties and also stop forcing traders to buy the Efris machines but rather use their Smart mobile handsets and printers that cost Shs150,000 to implement Efris.
Traders demonstrated in April and even closed their shops for a week protesting what they called the rough implementation of Efris, and unfair taxes, especially the Value Added Tax (VAT).
The taxman rolled out the Efris, an automated compliance process on January 1, 2021, mandating all VAT taxpayers whose business makes more than Shs150m annual sales to enroll.
