By The Insight Post
The Principal Assistant Town Clerk for Mukono Central Division in Mukono Municipality, Abubakar Wasajja tasked the local council-LCI Chairpersons to compile information about residents in their areas eligible for paying local service taxes.
Wasajja noted during the division budget conference that several people in gainful employment and practicing professionals reside in Mukono but skip their mandate of paying taxes which would contribute towards budget performance improvement.
“Let us compile and avail information about residents in our areas so that they can be contacted to start paying local service tax to the division to improve our budget performance.” Wasajja asked.
Local Service Tax was introduced by the Local Governments (Amendment) (No.2) ACT, of 2008, it is levied on all persons in gainful employment, practicing any profession, business persons and commercial farmers producing on a large scale.
The salaried employees pay the tax in four equal installments within the first four months of the financial year while all the other taxpayers pay it at once.
According to the Act, professionals include among others doctors, pharmacists, veterinary doctors, engineers, accountants, auditors, consultants, lawyers, architects, artists, journalists, writers, surveyors, planners and scientists.
Wasajja explains that the division is facing challenges of delayed release of funds from the center to manage planned activities, office space and equipment, departmental transportation means and lack of trucks to collect the overwhelming garbage.
The Nabuti Ward Chairperson, Ann Mary Kayitiro says the town clerk’s request is overdue since several people reside in their communities with potential to pay taxes that would contribute towards the development of the division.
For the Financial Year 2021/2022, Mukono Central Division planned to spend a budget of Shillings 1.4 billion but only 68percent was actualized. This current financial year, the division budgeted for Shillings 2.1 billion and only 14 percent is realized.
The Division Chief Finance Officer, Racheal Birimumaaso says several businesses are yet to recover from covid-19 effects but also, they are affected by the system breakdown due to continuous upgrades making it time consuming and unreliable, besides receiving interferences from politicians and house technical staff.
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