ARUA CITY COLLECTS UGX 1 BILLION FROM PROPERTY RATES.

By Albert Onzoma.

Arua City

Arua city council has collected close to 1 billion shillings out of the projected 2.5 billion shillings from property tax since the enforcement commenced in March.

Property tax is a tax payable by owners of property within a local government jurisdiction in Uganda and is based on the assessment of retable value determined by a valuation surveyor approved under the laws of Uganda.

Emmanuel Agundubo, the deputy town clerk of Arua city who doubles as the in charge of revenue mobilization and management stated that the expected revenues from the property rate will greatly boost their local revenue envelope.

According to Agundubo, the current 5% property rate approved by the ministry of local government for Arua city in 2022 will be implemented for the next five years up to 2029. “We are about 900 million coming to 1 billion in terms of collection of property tax, this is the first time we are collecting a billion because previously we have just being collecting around 300 million just out of our projected estimate of 2.5 billion to 3 billion this means if we don’t collect this property rates provision of services will be affected” he said.

However, some property owners in Arua city raised concerns over the manner in which Arua city council collects the property tax from them as property owners.

Arua city council approved 5 percent as the ratable value of a property as guided by the Local Government Property Rating Act 2006 which provides every local government to levy such rates as it may determine on the basis of the ratable value of any property within its jurisdiction.

COVER PHOTO: Agundubo Emmanuel the Assistant town clerk of Arua city in charge of revenue moblization and management By Albert Onzoma.