Ugandan Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development publishes tax expenditure report for 2021/22

In September 2022 the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development (MoFPED) published its tax expenditure report for 2021/22. The report was collaboratively produced with TaxDev and the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA). This represents the first publication of a tax expenditure report in Uganda, compiled following the benchmarking process undertaken in 2020. 

The report finds that total revenue foregone from tax expenditures has continued to grow over the past 5 years, to around 1.6% of GDP or 11.9% of actual taxes collected in 2021/22. The largest amount of revenue foregone is estimated to fall under the Value-Added-Tax (VAT) representing UShs. 1,151.47bn, or 0.7% of GDP. 

Over the past six financial years, Tax Expenditures in Uganda have grown both in terms of the number of provisions and in terms of the value of revenue foregone. The latter has increased from around 0.87% of GDP in FY16/17 to 1.56% of GDP in FY21/22, an increase of over 85% over the period in question. As a share of total taxes collected, tax expenditures have grown from 7.5% to 11.9% over the same period. 
TaxDev has supported the drafting of the report and, along with staff from the URA and MoFPED, led the modelling and analysis that underpins it. The TaxDev support not only focuses on improving the transparency of tax expenditure reporting and monitoring, but also building capabilities within these institutions in order to establish the process of reporting on an annual basis.

Read the report here: https://www.finance.go.ug/publication/uganda-tax-expenditure-report-fy-2021-22