All tax defaulters recently exposed by the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) are at a risk of facing a travel ban if they do not clear their tax liability.
This follows reports that in a bid to crack down on tax defaulters, the Uganda Revenue Authority is looking at pushing for travel bans on company directors found guilty of evading taxes.
In an exclusive interview with UGO Uganda, Mr Allan Ssempebwa, Media Officer, Public and Corporate Affairs at URA, said issuing a travel ban is one of the measures to deal with tax defaulters if they remain defiant in settling their debts. However, he noted that it is not yet confirmed that these defaulters will face the ban.
“These are just rumors but a travel ban is one of the measures to deal with tax defaulters. If a company refuses to clear the debt after a warning we can issue a travel bank, or ask the banks to close down the account among other measures,” Mr Ssempebwa said.
“However, we are working on the statement on the same issue (tax defaulters) which will be made available very soon,” he added.
Earlier news reports said the tax defaulters are to be stopped from travelling. KFM quoted URA’s Manager Debt Collection Abdul Salaam Waiswa saying tax defaulters will be stopped from travelling through the airport until all their tax arrears are cleared.
This also comes at a time when the authority is laying strategies for improving enforcement to raise more revenue to finance the 14 trillion shilling budget.
Recently, URA released a “Shame List” exposing the top 178 tax defaulters with companies defaulting taxes amounting to Shs125 billion.
Some of the companies on the shame list included Akright Projects Ltd (Shs659m), Askar Security Services Ltd (Shs95m), Eagles Production Ltd (Shs25m), Emerald Hotel Ltd (Shs243m), Freight Logistics Systems Ltd (Shs9m), Goldcrest Holdings Ltd (Shs48m), Steel Rolling Mills Ltd among others.
These arrears accumulated overtime but defaulters remained defiant in settling their tax liability despite several reminders to pay up.
