REVENUE OPERATIONS TEAM DISCOVERS OVER 270 MILLION LOSS IN ARUA TEXTILE MARKET

By Dramadri Federick
 
Arua City
 
A revenue Operations Team set by Arua central division has unearthed over 270 million shillings local revenue Loss from Gaagaa Textile Market due to non-compliance by some of the vendors.
 
During a snap check of the revenue remittance by the vendors in Gaagaa Textile market best known to be Hawker, the revenue team of the council discovered an accumulated arrears of up to 270,950,000 shillings by 145 vendors within the periods of 3 to 35 months.
 
This prompted the council to launch and operation to lock out those unpaying vendors in the market.
 
Muzaid Khemis the Mayor Arua central division council said the failure by the said vendors to comply with tax payments has crippled the efforts to improve services in the market.
“This is huge money, some have not paid for 35months, 20, 27…people are not paying, most of these people have sub lent these lockups which is against the market Act, people are paying to others and yet they are not remitting to the council. These are areas we are going to correct.”
 
However, some of the Vendors raised concerns over illiteracy on tax payments and delays by the council to generate the Payment registration numbers.
 
Swaib Adrole the speaker gaagaa textile market blames Arua central division council for the accumulated arrears stretching that there has been no awareness on the transition of payments from the manual systems to the electronic one.
 
“Currently they’re locking the doors, they are closing the doors, people are not selling and the money the council is demanding it’s too huge and to address this matter let them come to collect their monies in time and they should generate the PRN (Payment Registration Numbers) early to avoid another mess.”
 
According to the division council, even after a weaver of unpaid arrears during the Covid-19 lockdowns for a full year, some of the vendors have not paid a single coin.