By: Joseph Abiria

Arua

Local governments across the board are grappling with service delivery due to low revenue mobilization. Revenue collection for local governments is becoming a serious challenge because of non-compliance and poor tax remittance shown by tax payers. The crisis is overwhelming local governments since they lack adequate man power to collect the taxes amidst mismanagement of funds at the source.

During a training of trainers in Arua city, the Executive Director of agency for community empowerment, Aggrey Chombe blamed local governments for the mess in revenue mobilization because they have not taken deliberate efforts to recruit enough personnel to collect taxes. He said although local governments are financially constrained, people in authority should not relax in creating new revenue sources.

Local governments are always on pressure to deliver services , but sometimes, tax payers continue to disappoint the government units   due to  lack of  loyalty to pay taxes. The Project officer of SEATINI, Aloysious Kitengo calls upon local governments to shift to the digital method of revenue mobilization, because it’s effective and accurate   in financial record management. He said the analogue system is now outdated, with numerous challenges.

The LCV Vice chairperson Nebbi district, Okello Geoffery Anecho is equally aggrieved with the operation and running of local government activities. He said that these government bodies have done little to address the issue of human resource gaps in revenue collection. He therefore asked local governments to priotize monitoring and put up sensitization campaigns to educate people on the benefits of paying taxes.
However the LCV chairman Zombo district, Oyullu Oruna James urged the central government to come up with a proper regulatory framework that looks into the responsibilities of duty bearers in tax payment. He said a lot of likages still exist in the tax systems of local governments.