Pallisa is one of the districts found in Eastern Uganda with 14 sub counties , 68 parishes and 587 villages.
Fredrick Byekwaso, Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) , Pallisa district
The district has a number of economic activities which include; wholesale and retail trade, Subsistence crop agriculture and animals husbandry.
The Integrated Revenue Administration System (IRAS) is an online and Mobile Application Platform that enables local government and cities collect revenue through registration, assessment, billing, payment awareness among tax payers and connecting resident to local government.
The system requires the tax payer to use the available internet enabled device (Phone or Computer ) to pay taxes directly to the government (through area local government) and after a successful completion of the whole process, a receipt is issued automatically capturing the business details and amount paid.
It has proved to be effective in areas where it has been introduced as corruption free because there’s no person to person contact or cash exchange and it started operations in Pallisa in April 2023.
Pallisa district headquarters
Pallisa District officials
Mukesi Robert, the District Planner , one of the brains behind IRAS in Pallisa says that they were introduced to the system by their partners Action Aid International Uganda.
“I picked interest in the idea because other districts which had adopted the same were doing well interms of revenue collection and later on I sold the idea to the technical planning committee in consultation with my CAO. Being that we already shown interest, when requested for it from the ministry of local government, it was cleared in less than two weeks.”
Mukesi adds that after introduction of the IRAS system, district officials (financial department) were trained about its proper management from the district level downwards.
“We started operating IRAS here in April this year and basing on the available records ( received from committee meetings), revenue collection has greatly improved.”
Joseph Akol, the senior Finance Manager , Pallisa District, says that eversince this system was introduced, it has improved accountability whereby they are in position to monitor the amount of money received on a daily basis which was not the case before.
“Through sensitization, people have learnt how to use the digital payment methods and warned never to give cash to our field officers. At times here at headquarters we take people through the process on projectors (everyday ) as we encourage them to go digital.”
He expressed worry about the ongoing changes in the system which has made it difficult for them to master operations of IRAS. “We started using the system in April(first version) but now its in third version, we didn’t get time to learn even the first phase and I need to tell my officers how to handle the latest version.” He added.
Joseph Akol, the senior Finance Manager , Pallisa district displaying one of the recalled receipt books.
Fredrick Byekwaso, the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO), said that revenue collection officers like; CDO, Parish Chiefs, Health Inspectors and others would pick cash but it was very tempting to the extent that it used to be hard to hit our revenue targets.
“Its hard for a Parish chief to collect revenue from the field when at home he has financial needs but has no other kind of money with him. This has been affecting our accounting process to the extent many chiefs have been using this money promising to pay back after getting their salaries which at times they don’t fulfill.”
Byekwaso added that comparing the revenue collection registered in a quarter prior to introduction of IRAS, there has been a great improvement and they expect more success.
“I would like to call upon the Ministry of finance to reduce on the period which they take to send back the funds to the district since the new system compiles the total revenue collection faster compared to the previous one. The district should atleast receive these funds atleast in the first week of the quarter than taking a full month as it happened during the last quarter.” He added.
How the system operates
Local Government official in charge of revenue collection makes assessment for the tax payer.
He/she informs the tax payer the amount to be paid through the use of digital platforms.
Credentials are given to the tax payer , he enters them into the system and pay using Mobile money platform.
The system generates the License which can be printed or sent on mail as proof of payment.
Benefits of the system
IRAS reduces on cases of indiscipline among Civil servants whereby with this system there is no cases of suspending officials as a result of misappropriation of funds because there is no physical handling of cash.
It encourages citizens to pay taxes because they know it clearly that their money will be put into proper use since they paid it directly to Government.
The system provides easy accountability since all income (revenue) collected can be easily traced from the dashboard that its monitored by more than one official.
Although Parish chiefs still handle Tax assessment duties and other related roles, the system saved help them to spare some time to handle other responsibilities.
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