Uganda Revenue Authority has freezed the accounts of all the four divisions in Lira Municipality over accumulated tax arrears amounting to the half a billion shillings. The money in question accrued from unremitted taxes from withholding tax, Pay As you Earn- PAYE and Value Added Tax-VAT over the past 6 years. According to a document seen by URN, URA demands shillings 200M from Central, Railways 70M, Adyel 50M and 100 Million from Ojwina Divisions.
Patrick Ogweng, the Assistant town clerk in charge of Central Division says all their accounts in DFCU and Stanbic banks have been blocked by the tax body. He says that as a result, their operations have grounded to a halt because of lack of funds since they cannot access their accounts. Ogweng attributes the current mess to his predecessors who he accused of failing to remit the tax money.
He explains that he has been remitting the taxes promptly to URA since he assumed office in 2009. Ambrose Ocen, the town Clerk Lira Municipality says that tax arrears accumulate due to the laxity by accounting officers to remit the money. He faults politicians for mounting pressure on the accounting officers to divert funds for other activities to pay their allowances which results in such problems.
Patrick Opolot, the Lango area URA supervisor says that they decided to freeze the division accounts after failed negotiations. He explains that in March the divisions gave URA a post dated cheque which bounced when they presented it in the bank. Lawrence Egole, a resident of Central Division says the freezing of the divisional accounts is going to affect service delivery to residents.
