Economists React to Uganda's 48.1 trillion Budget

Following the just concluded Budget Reading for the financial year 2022/23, various Ugandans have reacted with different opinions whether the budget is sustainable.

No new taxes have been  introduced in Financial Year 2022/23,however  finance minister Matia Kasaija argues that government will achieve revenue targets by improving the efficiency in tax collection and enhancing compliance to tax laws.

The punitive measures for failure to provide information to the Uganda Revenue Authority or if you deliberately give misleading information or submitting wrong information and introduction of custodial sentences that range as far as 10 years in prison.

Geofrey Byamugisha the country managing partner Ernest and Young Certified Public Accountants says as much as the budget focus was about tax compliance,there is need to carefully  handle the measures to ensure that the penalties don't put Uganda at a disadvantage.

Byamugisha who was speaking at a meeting at Sheraton Hotel Kampala stressed the need to analyze provision in the budget estimates to ensure that investors are comfortable and for them not to turn their interests to other countries with incentives.

Uganda's Budget estimates have mainly focused on an efficient  tax administration which government sees as an incentive to increase compliance.

Speaking at a presentation that looked at the budget estimates together with  various state holders, Byamugisha observed that Uganda needs to carefully enforce the compliance measures since there is competition with other countries in attracting investments into the country.

The Africa attractiveness severely shows that Uganda has totally dropped from the Top 10 African investment destinations.

It first ranked at 8 and dropped to 10 and is now out of the Top 10 in attracting investments in Africa,a concern that stake holders are calling for a thorough investigation into to establish the cause of the sharp drop.