FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
TOPIC: THE IMPACT OF GRADUATED TAX SUSPENSION ON LOWER
LOCAL GOVERNMENT PERFORMANCE IN KANUNGU DISTRICT
DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC
ADMINISTRATION AND MANAGEMENT IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR THE
AWARD OF BACHELORS DEGREE IN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND MANAGEMENT OF UGANDA
CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
BY
BYARUHANGA JULIUS
No Person is allowed to download this Document without the authorisation Author
Declaration
I Byaruhanga Julius declare that
this dissertation is my own original work and that it has not been presented
and will not be submitted to any other University for a similar or different
degree award.
________________________ _____________________
BYARUHANGA
JULIUS Date
I dedicate this book to my Parents:
Rev. Can. Bernard Byamugisha and Mrs. Faith Byamugisha. Their love for
education and hard work towards raising my tuition became a motivating factor
that contributed to achieving my education career and making my dreams come true.
It is also dedicated to my brothers Brian, Paul and Amos Musinguzi all my
sisters and friends for technical and moral
support.
I first of all thank the Almighty
God for protecting me and guiding me through my education and more so
completion of this research. I acknowledge my efforts towards the
completion of this book and compilation of all the data necessary for this
dissertation to be in place.
I am greatly indebted to a number
of people who technically, collectively, financially, morally and materially
contributed towards the successful completion of my research for this book that
started on 3th May2009 and ended on 8th July 2009.
Primarily I would like to acknowledge the assistance rendered by Mr. Tabaro
Robert my University Supervisor and Mr. Katusiimeh Meshach for helping me and
supporting me in research activity I have been carrying out in the field and
also in approving the dissertation.
In a unique manner, I sincerely
register a vote of thanks to my parents; Rev. Can. Bernard Byamugisha and Mrs.
Faith Byamugisha because of their financial, technical, and moral support. My gratitude also goes to Mr. Musinguzi Amos
for helping me in providing some information to help compile my data and even
assisting me in some activities. Like
any other research, my research involved contributions of many institutions,
individuals and organisations for it to be accomplished therefore, a lot of
thanks go to all the field respondents for giving me all the necessary
information needed for this dissertation to be compiled.
May the Almighty God bless them
all!
ACAO Assistant Chief
Administrative Officer
CSOs Civil Society Organisations
CBOs Community Based Organisations
ACCU Anti-Corruption Coalition Uganda
CAO Chief Administrative Office
GTC Graduated
Tax Compensation
HR Human Resource
LC Local Council
CG Central Government
LGDP
Local Government
Development Programme
LGFC Local Government Finance Committee
MOLG
Ministry of Local Government
NAADS National Agricultural Advisory
Services
NGOs Non-Governmental Organisations
PAYE Pay as You Earn
GT
Graduated Tax
RC Resistance Council
SWGs Sector
Working Groups
TC Town
Council
VAT Value Added Tax
LGs
Local
Governments
LLGs
Lower Local Governments
URA Uganda Revenue Authority
Table 1 Sample selection_____________________________________________ 22
Chat 1 A pie
chart showing the category of respondents by age______________ 28
Chat 2 A pie
chart showing respondents’ category by education levels________ 29
Chat 3 Pie
chart showing category of respondents by sex__________________ 29
Graph 1 A bar graph showing respondents from each sub-county___________ 30
Graph 2 A bar graph showing the marital status of
respondents____________ 31
Table 2
Statistics on people’s opinion on Graduated tax suspension
and service delivery________________________________________________________ 31
Table 3 Classification of LG sources of revenue________________________ 35
Graph 3 A bar graph showing findings on
respondents’ opinion on the total suspension or return of GT____________________________________________________ 40
Table 4 Appendix 2 Budget________________________________________ 56
Table 5 Appendix 3 Work Plan / Time Table__________________________ 56
The aim of the study was to assess
the effects of the suspension of
graduated tax in the lower local governments’ service delivery. The findings
reveal that GT formed a major source of the local revenue collection and this
made it easy for the lower local governments to deliver some services to the
people without depending so much on the central government as it is today. GT was
used to fund schools (both government and private), pay workers, garbage
collection, and routine road maintenance, buy medical equipment and furniture
for schools. GT was crucial for the functioning of lower local governments. Its
suspension brought a very big task of finding about 59.0 billion Uganda
shillings to replace it.
With the suspension of GT, there were many negative effects that were faced
by the lower local governments. They would no longer render services as
required by the Act. They resorted to raise revenue from road side markets;
impromptu road blocks to tax any one taking any saleable commodity to the
market, toilet tax, bodaboda tax and various forms of licenses. Government soon
banned these collections making local governments financially bankrupt.
In order to alleviate this problem;
the researcher went to Kanungu District in an attempt to find other sources of
local revenue acceptable to Government. Based on the Mukono District findings,
it is recommended that new sources of revenue for the lower local governments
include land tax, property tax, parking fees, taxes on charcoal and cattle,
introduction of indirect taxes on essential household consumption, VAT,
introduction of local government matching grant. It is also suggested that the
new introduced taxes should be acceptable by sensitizing payers on the need to
pay taxes. Without paying taxes, services cannot be provided. However, collection
of these taxes should be made easy in order to avoid the weaknesses that were
associated with GT collection.
The dissertation is presented in
five chapters:
Chapter one deals with the
introduction, statement of the problem, objectives of the study, scope of the
study and justification of the study.
Chapter two deals with the review
of the literature on the various aspects of paying this kind of tax and Chapter
three deals with the methodology where it states the research design,
geographical area of study, topography of Mukono District, study population,
sample size and sampling procedure, data collection techniques, data analysis
and presentation, ethical considerations and problems encountered in the study.
Chapter four covers the findings of the research and chapter five looks at the
summery of findings, conclusions and recommendations.
This
study is about the Impact of graduated
tax suspension on lower local government performance in Kanungu district.
This chapter is about the background of the study, problem statement, general
objectives, specific objectives, and research questions, scope of the study,
methodology and significance of the study.
Graduated
tax (GT) has a long history in Uganda.
It was introduced during the colonial days as a replacement of the hut tax.
Prior to decentralization, GT contributed to the general government revenue
base therefore, graduated tax constituted a major source of local revenue for
local governments. In Uganda
however, when decentralization was introduced in the early 1990s, GT has since
been collected by local governments. Research from six districts (Arua, Kamuli,
Masaka, Mbale, Mubende and Ntungamo) indicates that GT accounted for 60-70
percent of local revenue. For local governments, therefore, GT was the most
important source of locally generated revenue. The revenue from other local
sources such as market dues, park fees, business licenses and property tax
bring in less revenue than GT, except for Kampala City
where property tax alone yielded more revenue than GT. Despite the large share
of GT in locally generated revenue, the share of GT in total local government
revenue was about 5%. Therefore, in the big scheme of things G-tax could be
done away with and local governments would not cease to exist. Market
dues, on the other hand, account for about 5 percent
of locally raised revenue and less than 1 percent of total local government
revenue, yet they
are a much
bigger burden to the
individual taxpayer than Graduated tax.
Graduated tax is
mentioned in the constitution of the Republic
of Uganda as one of the
taxes that local Governments can derive revenue from (Article 191(2) of the
1995 Constitution of the Republic of Uganda). The fifth schedule of the Local
Governments Act, 1997 further specifies that graduated tax be collected from
all able bodied male persons above the age of 18 and all able bodied women
engaged in gainful employment.
Graduated tax constituted a major source of local revenue for local
governments. According to studies undertaken by the Commission, graduated tax
contributed to about 75% of total local revenues that accrued to rural local
governments in 1997/98, and about 35% of revenues to urban ones in the same
year.
Despite the significance and importance of the tax to local governments, there
was pressure from some politicians to abolish the tax all together, arguing
that it is primitive and crudely collected. Even
with the compensation for the graduated tax abolition, service delivery and
performance in Local Governments (LGs) have remained a problem in many Districts
across the country.
Irrespective
of graduated tax abolition, service delivery has remained constant in lower
local governments in Kanungu district. Graduated tax was suspended due to some
of the reasons that were being put across by some politicians which include;
Graduated tax had a bad colonial legacy associated with forced hard labour
Graduated tax had been in practice regressive meaning that the tax rate
actually would fall as income increases and this gave a negative impact on
compliance. However, as a result of Graduated
Tax abolition in Uganda, service delivery and performance of LGs in Kanungu
district irrespective of graduated tax compensations that the government has
put in place has remained a mystery and insufficient. According to the District
planner’s Paper presented to the council in July 2009, Kanungu district
which is one of the districts in Uganda still face a big challenge
in implementing some of the programmes which were being implemented using the GT.
More so, according to the research carried out by the LG Finance Commission in
Financial Year 2007/8 some LGs opt not to share the little GT compensation Fund
with LLGs hence paving a big constraint on LLGs operations. This however, this
also happens in Kanungu District according to the Paper presented by the CAO
Mr. Joseph Byaruhanga in a council session in July 2009. However, also according
to the ACAO in his speech on Labour day of 2010 some LLGs are cheated on the
rate of GT compensation funds disbursed Therefore, the LGs that share are very
few and this means that even the resources are not enough for them as it is
stated in the same report that “the districts that share with their LLGs had
worse deficits in wage gap, and Councils failing to sit, and general negative
impact on payment of utilities and many others. Findings also have it that the rate of service delivery in the district
mainly in health, education and transport sectors has reduced due to GT
suspension.
To find out the impact of Graduated Tax abolition to
service delivery in LGs and Lower Local Governments of Kanungu District
1. To identify the rate at which services are delivered
after Graduated Tax abolition in LGs compared to before the abolition.
2. To identify the challenges faced by LGs in delivery
of services after Graduated Tax abolition.
3. To identify the sources of revenues that finances
the activities of LGs after the Graduated Tax abolition in Kanungu District.
4. To find out and establish respondents’ opinions on
viable ways of financing LGs
What are the sources of revenue?
How do you compare the performance of LG in service
delivery before graduated tax suspension and after its suspension?
What have been the challenges faced by LGs in
delivery of services after Graduated Tax suspension?
What do you think are the viable ways of financing
LG programmes?
The
scope is further divided into subsections these are; content scope,
geographical scope and time scope. These describe the content to be covered,
area of study and time spent in the field among others.
The study was limited to the impact of graduated tax
suspension on service delivery and local government performance
in Kanungu district. The researcher investigated the methods used, challenges
and suggests possible solutions to the study problem.
This study covered an area of four sub-counties that
is Kanungu Town Council, Rutenga, Kirima and Kayonza. The researcher studied
these areas mainly because the issues in the above mentioned areas are more
evident and observable and they are easily accessible by the researcher.
The research study looked at the current years (2009-2010)
and the past years 1999-2000) when local governments were undertaking the
collection of graduated tax and how they are operating today without graduated
tax in relation to how they used to operate and deliver services. This
particular time was chosen because it coincides with the increasing rate of
poor service delivery and poor LG performance as indicated by LG finance
commission that departments of finance, Administration, Police prisons, Human Rights,
Planning and many others are not fully funded. Therefore, the study was done in
the period of two months of June and July.
The study intended to find out the problems associated
with graduated tax abolition and how they affect performance and service
delivery in LG and LLGs of Kanungu district.
The recommendations made by this study will help
government to;
Discover other sources of revenue the LGs can use to
raise some income to fund the projects at hand. It was also able to understand
the causes and effects of poor service delivery and performance in LGs mainly
in LLGs therefore are able to find possible ways of managing service delivery. This
study was to provide a solution to poor service delivery and performance of
Local Governments. Therefore it will be important by giving the solutions to
the problems associated with service delivery and LG performance due to the suspension
of graduated tax. Therefore, this research will be relevant to all citizens not
only in the district but also at the national level.
It also intended to enable the researcher to learn
more on how service delivery in Kanungu district LG is conducted and managed
even after suspension of GT. It also helped the researcher to achieve his
academic career and acquire a Bachelors degree in Public Administration and
management.
The research will also help the readers are able to
understand what makes service delivery and performance in LGs a success or a
failure. It will also help them to refer to it in case they are doing similar
or related study. Hence it will act as a reference and a guiding tool to
readers and other researchers.
This
section mainly focuses on the study of already established by scholarly
academic work, literature, theses and theories by various scholars and writers.
The
researcher have had the duty to apply already established theories or concepts
on LGs, Service delivery and role of LGs in service delivery irrespective of
graduated tax abolition. It will also look at the opinions of most scholars and
writers about service delivery and LG performance, sources of revenue for LGs,
challenges faced by LGs in service delivery and people’s perception on LG
financing.
A graduated
tax system establishes a standard rate up to a certain threshold of capital
value, which every property pays, then properties whose capital values exceed
the threshold pay an alternate rate on the surplus. The graduated rate could be
upward, as in the income tax system, were the surplus amounts over the
threshold pay a higher tax rate or it could be a downward system were the
surplus amounts over the threshold pay a lower tax rate. The two figures below
illustrate the two different types of graduated tax.
The
introduction of a graduated tax either for the top 25% or the top 50% results
in a more progressive property tax system than the current rental based system.
However it causes an increased tax burden on the lowest three quarters of
properties when compared to a discrete capital value (uniform rate) system and
makes the property tax system more complicated to understand. The adoption of a
downward graduated tax rate would have to be justified on the bases of
restoring the balance between the ‘ability to pay’ and the ‘provision of
services’ principles.
The
graduated tax in Uganda contributed to overall repressiveness of local taxes
when if it is applied in practice at the
basic level rate that is set by the government that is shs3000=. Graduated Tax has
a history of being a subject to extensive political interference. However, its
collection methods were of harassment and oppression of tax payers before its
abolition which
was unacceptable in a Human Right perspective. Furthermore, although the number
of graduated ax bands was reduced to 17 in March 2003 from 22 in 2001, it was
still a strikingly complex and impractical when compared to the 4 bands of PAYEE
income tax.
However the issue of whether graduated tax should be abolished was raised on
several occasions in those years and it was also experienced in Tanzania
as well. However, this research intends to look at the implications of the
abolition and people’s response now towards the abolition including Civil
Servants. Graduated tax was mainly abolished on political grounds in a way of
looking for support from tax payers who were oppressed and treated in a wild
way by tax collectors of the time.
Therefore,
the suspension of Graduated tax
exactly has impacted service delivery and performances of LGs in most districts
of Uganda
most especially rural districts like Kanungu District in this case. This is due
to the fact that Decentralization mainly has to depend on the Local revenues
for the dairy running on its activities. For example according to (Elliott
Green 2007) the standard reason from creating new sub-national units in
developing countries is to improve service delivery and developmental out
comes).
There was initially a problem that money was not enough to really carry out
important projects for the villages were wide spread irrespective of the local
revenue that was transferred to LC1 that is 25% of locally collected revenue
according to (Anne Mette Kjaer Geneva 9-10 December 2006. When services are not
delivered because of the abolition of graduated tax problem, still
accountability is not given to people and according to Anne Mette Kjaer, the
character of accountability is very clearly reflected in the process of LG tax
collection and service delivery since this is where local authorities and
residents have a face-to-face encounters.
In
the recent years there has been paying of graduated tax by various citizens
across the country. Studies have shown that the abolition of graduated tax has
pulled down service delivery and performance of LG more especially LLGs.
While
many studies/ scholars have carried out research in service delivery covering
different issues including graduated tax in third world countries, gaps remain
on how they relate to LG performance and service delivery in LLGs (LG finance commission structured public
hearing on the finance of LGs in FY 2007/8: 19). As a result of
deficits, LGs have experienced a negative effect on their budget performance.
Development and recurrent cost cannot be met. It is clear that Departments like;
Finance, Administration, Police,
prisons, HR, Planning and Council that do not directory benefit from
conditional grants have failed to implement their planned activities in time.
They have failed to meet the some obligations like debt payments. LGs propose
that these departments should get some kind of special conditional grants
straight from the Centre.
However this will be challenged by my research in that as they receive
conditional grants still it will not be easy for them to operate because there
are some other activities that may not be funded by the Centre and which may
also promote effective service delivery.
It is important also to note that a number of reasons
were raised by many stake holders about the collection and administration of
Graduated tax and there included among others;
Local governments
should, with the assistance of the Ministry of Local Government, increase
sensitisation and promote transparency by publishing tax registers and projects
undertaken using graduated tax contributions
Local government
councils should adopt simple systems of motivating collectors, assessors and
supervisors (including LC1 officials)
Local governments
should provide tickets on time and guard against counterfeits
Local governments
should be encouraged to explore privatising assessment and collection
operations (each to independent agencies) so as to reduce the effect of
political interference
Local governments and
especially sub-county councils should improve on record keeping and involve
LC1s who are likely to identify taxpayers more reliably
Local governments
should be encouraged to identify and reward most compliant taxpayer say by sex
and social status
Local governments
should explore collections through payment by installment throughout the year
or by harvest season.
Service delivery is a
manifestation of good governance. Public
services are those services provided by governments (local, municipal, or
larger-scale) to the public. The need for services that no individual can or
will pay for, but that benefit all by their presence, is one of the
justifications for taxation. Examples of such services are sewage, trash
disposal, and street cleaning. On a larger scale, public education and public
health services (in countries that have them) are also public services. Public
service delivery is the implementation of those services and making sure they
reach those people and places they're intended to.
The LCs is expected to spearhead grassroots
development. A departure from the past practice, where district Councillors
were elected by an electoral college, the new constitution provides for the
election of the chairperson and members of the district councils through
universal adult suffrage. The district Chairperson is the political head of the
district. In city or municipality or towns the Chairperson carries the title of
a Mayor.
The LC system
introduced fairly significant changes, which clarified the earlier confused
line of accountability and streamlined the procedures. The Council now is the
supreme political organ in its jurisdiction. At the district LC 5 level for
instance, Chairperson, who is the political head of the Council, forms the
executive wing together with the core members of the Councilors in important
functions. The core Councilors is called Secretaries of sector committees:
finance and administration, production and extension services, education and
sports, health and environment, and works and technical services. The Council
also forms a legislative forum where all elected Councilors serve as
representatives of the people. The technical staff under the Chief
Administrative Officer (CAO), who is the head of the civil service, implements
policy decisions of the Council.
In addition, there were
significant changes to improve the previous RC system. First, while the RC was
a five-tier system, the LC has basically three levels. Although there are still
LC 2 and LC 4 units (which are equivalent to RC 2 and 4 respectively), they are
not essential in delivering public services. Since RC 3 is the focal point for
such services, it enjoys the corporate status, and is now the target of various
institutional building efforts. Second, in the RC system, RC 1 leaders were
elected by universal suffrage of adults by lining behind the candidates. This
form of direct election did not apply to the upper level elections. Therefore
as the Councils moved from grassroots to upper levels along the hierarchy, the
degree of reflecting public views was reduced. In the current LC system, the
range for direct election has significantly enlarged. Additionally, secret
ballot is a more common method of voting with the exception of selecting women
representatives by lining behind the candidates. Most important is that the
election of LC 5 Chairperson, equivalent to the governor in many other
countries, is now a secret ballot of universal adult suffrage. Third, women’s
representation has significantly improved. While minimum requirement of female
representation in the RC system was only one out of nine Councillors, now it is
at least one third of the entire representatives. Fourth, during the RC system,
discharging responsibilities as Councillors were totally dependent on
voluntarism without any official remuneration. Now core members of the LC are
paid full time at LC 3 and 5 levels 9 this has undoubtedly contributed
significantly to the improvement of work incentives of the Councillors. Fifth,
reflecting experiences of earlier districts to manage delegated funds by the
central.
The current structure of the local council system in
Uganda
represents a hierarchy of local representation. The basic unit of local
government is the district and is governed by the District Local Councils,
referred to as LC 5. Districts, consist of sub-counties LC 3 and sub-counties
consist of parishes and these are similarly governed by parish councils, known
as LC
The parishes consist of the smallest political unit,
governed by the village councils, known as LC Power originates from the village
(LC 1) in both rural and urban areas. All people resident in a jurisdiction
area constitute a council at the respective level. At all levels from LC 1 to
LC 5, there is an executive committee. These committees consist of line
officials: Chairperson, a General Secretary, and Secretaries for Women,
Finance, Security, Youth, Information, Mass Mobilization, Social Services and
Education. The committees have statutory power to make decisions pertaining to
the development of their local areas, to administer local justice through LC
courts, and to mobilize local involvement in development projects. The
different local government levels and city or municipal councils or town
councils are a corporate body and enjoy a substantial measure of autonomous
local decision making. Local administrative and technical staff is answerable
to local councils, and not central government line ministries. The power to
appoint persons to hold or act in any office in the service of a district or
urban council, including the power to confirm appointments, to exercise
disciplinary control over personnel is vested in the district service
commission. Urban councils through the District Service Commission now appoint
Town Clerks who are supposed to serve as the administrative heads of the urban
councils. The
Town Clerk is responsible and subject to the general direction of the Mayor or
Chairperson and the Council. The current program of decentralization which is
being refined and operationalized by the Decentralization Secretariat has now
been implemented in all the 45 districts of the country. The objective of the
reforms is to create a local government system that is “democratic,
participatory, efficient and development-oriented.” The specific objectives of
the decentralization policy and programs are as follows:
To transfer the real power to the districts and thus
reduce the load of work on remote and under resourced central officials;
To bring political and administrative control over
services to the point where they are actually delivered; thereby improving
accountability and effectiveness, and promoting people’s feeling of “ownership”
of programs and projects executed in their districts;
To free local managers from central constraints as
long term goals allow them to develop organizational structures tailored to
local communities;
To improve financial accountability and
responsibility by establishing a clear link between the payment of taxes and
provisions of services they finance; and
To improve the capacity of local councils to plan, finance and manage the
delivery of services to their constituencies.
However, this was planned when graduated tax was
still being collected from tax payers and as mentioned above the research that
has been put across does not show how all this can be achieved mainly in LLGs
amidst little compensation which does not reach LLGs and which in mainly conditional.
Therefore, this research will be in position to identify possible sources of revenue
for both LGs and LLGs.
It is also believed that there are various sources
of revenue that help local governments to fund their activities and improve on
service delivery. The following are the sources of revenue for local
governments P: 4;
Local Hotel Tax; LGs in
Kanungu district collect taxes from Hotels that operate in town councils,
markets and other trading centres. According to Musinguzi Amos a Hotel owner,
LGs collect some amounts of money from them on a weekly basis. This is also in
reference to LG finance commission report for FY 2007/8 which says that LGs
collect taxes from hotels and Lodges depending on their rate of operation.
Property rates are also
among the taxes collected in LGs; these are said to be taxes levied on the
property one owns. According to LG finance commission report FY 2007/8,
property taxes are levied on the amount of property an individual(s) own. This
was also found out in the findings that Kanungu District LG collects that type
of tax.
Market dues; these are
also referred to as “obusuuru” meaning they are taxes collected from people in
markets and those selling commodities in market places. There taxes are said to
be among the major contributors of local revenue in Kanungu District LLG. For
example “We get much money from Rutenga Market and put at the sub-county to do
government work” Twesigye Caleb a market tenderer said. According to Odd-Helge
Fjeldstand Lise Rakner (2003) most LGs in Africa
get much of their local taxes from Market dues.
Trading licenses; these
are taxes levied on shop or hotel owners to authorise them to operate in a
given trading centre or any other urban centre. These are also said to be among
the major forms of taxes collected by LGs country over. According to a speech
made by the District planner Kanungu District LG in July 2010, Trading Licenses
were the major contributors of locally collected taxes in Kanungu district in
FY2009/2010.
Liquor licenses; these are
taxes levied on local brews. “In Kanungu District LG most especially Kirima Sub-
County, Liquor licenses contributes over 20% of the local
revenue collected in that sub-County” District Planner Kanungu
District LG said.
Permits for stage plays
and public entertainment; these are fees charged from local artists who want to
perform in a given area. However, findings have it that these contribute less
to the local revenue in Kanungu District LG.
Fish licensing fees; these
are charges levied on fishing companies or groups. In Kanungu
District LG, this is done in Kihiihi sub-County on fishing groups on Lake
Edward. However, According to Helge Fjeldstand Lise Rakner 2003, most countries
including Uganda
get much income from the fishing industry.
Fines under the Public
Health Act; this is money got from law breakers who have been charged by
courts. That is both Local/Village courts and the Magistrate courts. This
however contributes less income to LGs most especially in Kanungu
District LG.
Registration fees; this is
money got from registration of clubs, organisations like CBOs, CSOs, NGOs,
Business companies and Schools among others. They are also among the major
contributors of revenue in LGs countrywide. Under this there is also an
independent fee called Parking fees; these are fees collected from taxes and
buses in parks. They are mainly collected in TCs and cities across the country
where there are many taxes and buses working. They are also chief contributors
of revenue to LGs in the country.
Another
source has been the local service tax. Under this Tax, all practicing
professionals such as lawyers, teachers, doctors, engineers are required to pay
a tax which ranges from Shs5000 to Shs100, 000 per person per year. The
argument in support of this tax is that the suspension of Graduated Tax created
a funding gap in the local governments with in Kanungu District.
Therefore the Local Service Tax is to cure this problem. Under the new law, the
non-professionals who are required to pay the Local Service Tax are people who
are carrying out commercial farming on more than two acres of land or have more
than 20 cows.
Toll
on roads, bridges, ferries maintained by the District Government; findings also
have it that Kanungu District LG collects road toll taxes in Rutenga Sub-county in Kanungu-Kabale Boarder.
However, it is also important to note that such taxes are collected elsewhere
in LGs across the country.
Rent
for land, buildings, equipment, machinery and vehicles. These are taxes
collected from rental land, buildings equipment and machinery being used by
individuals or companies to generate some income. According to The District
Planner Kanungu District LG, such taxes are collected from ox ploughs, land in
towns, rental houses and trucks among others.
Fee
for major industrial exhibitions and other public events organized by the
District Government; any exhibition or trade shows organised by either
government or organisation like a trade company is paid for. Such money goes to
the treasury of LGs to boost its Local revenue collection.
Loyalties;
these create awareness to LGs and other stakeholders on the LGs loyalties
entitlement under the Mines Act 2003, the Electricity Act, and the Wildlife Act
1999.
It is however important also to note that these
revenue sources vary from LG to LG based on economic practices and gifts of
nature/Natural endowments among others. The procedure for managing and
collecting local revenues from tax payers also differ from one tax to another.
The identification, management and collection of local revenues require
specific knowledge and skills that are critical to enhance compliance.
Conditional
grants from the central governments; LGs country over, get much of its income
in terms of revenue from the central government conditional grants. This is the
money sent or allocated to LGs to specifically implement some LG projects and
programmes. Conditional grants however
though allocated to specific activities according to the ACAO Kanungu
District LG when activities are implemented and funds remain they can be transferred
to other activities. According to article 158 of the Constitution of The
Republic of Uganda, it is also from the consolidated fund that salaries of
workers are got.
Unconditional
grants; these are funds from central government to LGs that help to run other
programmes but not directed to specific programmes. It is from these funds that
staff allowances for daily monitoring and evaluation of activities are got. Un
conditional grants more so act/help in the daily operation of the district.
2.4 Challenges faced by local governments in delivery
of services
It is very clear
that there are problems in the arena of financial management and this is
reflected in the very poor audit reports received by municipalities and Local
Governments. A key cause of this problem is that there is a critical shortage
of accounting and financial skills available in the municipalities and other
Lower Local Governments with in mainly third world countries. This is not
surprising. This is however related to poor accounting skills mainly with in
the accounting officers in Lowe local governments and Local governments. By
improving a number of skills municipalities may be better able to deliver
services effectively and efficiently from inside. Better communication between
the local governments and citizens will help council determine the needs of the
community and whether they are being met. Improved financial planning will help
find the best possible ways to use available funds. Better technical skills
will improve delivery of particular Local services. The cause of this critical
problem is the lack of skills of the support and entry level staff within the
finance departments.
Many Countries,
however, are unable to deliver services to residents/citizens of whom it might
be because of lack of finances or lack of capacity to provide a good service at
an affordable price. Such countries should find other ways to ensure that the
services are improved and reach the people most in need of them. For example
most developing countries like Uganda
first seek for donor support to deliver even services which are cheap and can
easily be affordable like construction of local dispensaries and schools.
Poor financial
control procedures and time allocated to addressing audit queries detracts severely
from service delivery. Most countries set rules and procedures to manage
finances but few try to follow up and take responsibility of knowing whether
those rules and procedures are followed and implemented. In so doing, most
public officers will mismanage finances and eventually services will not be
provided. For example in most LGs in Uganda local revenues which are supposed
to be used to deliver services to the citizens are at times spent from the
collecting place in other words mismanaged and at times there is no follow up
done by the authorities.
Administrative Red Tape; Although the intent of the Local
Government Act of 1997 is to devolve power to lower tiers of government and the
whole government as a whole, in the rural areas as well as urban centres, a
degree of administrative bureaucracy and donor influence still exists and this
hinders service delivery most especially in LLGs. This stems from the tendency
of the higher administrative echelons to exert hegemony over local government
bodies. Once can only surmise that this problem is a transitional one and that
as full-scale decentralization of administration is consolidated in the
districts. The need for protracted reference by the lower local councils to
higher councils will become less common.
This has still hindered the service delivery process because at times
LGs/governments do not have enough powers to spend some money like the balance
from the conditional grants and some money from donors which come with some
strings attached or ear marked for certain activities and this is a threat to
service delivery.
Civil wars
and military coup also is a barrier to service delivery mainly in developing
countries like Uganda.
For example, in the mid 1960s, Uganda had one of the best health
care systems. However, the military coup of Idi Amin in 1872 followed by the
civil war, economic decline and structural adjustment related cuts that took
place between 1976 and 1988 adversely affected public health service delivery
systems. As a response to such problems, Government embarked on, health sector
reforms in 1987 in form of broad decentralization of health services,
privatization, broadening the health financing to introduce user charges and
community prepayment schemes on public facilities and broadening the provider
mix with emphasis on effective use of nongovernmental resources, which all
aimed at freeing resources that could eventually be spent on the poor.
The destructive
individual actions act as a barrier to service delivery in most countries. The
destructive individual action is a strategy adopted both in the living and
industrial locations in the city of Dar-Es-Salaam,
by individuals and by industrialists respectively. In their self-initiatives to
provide themselves with basic public services, which the city council has
failed to provide, households and industrialists adopt strategies, which
jeopardize public interests in the community. The strategy carries along with
it a lot of short run and long run negative effects not only to the individual
but to the entire urban population and the environment as a whole. For instance
in solving the problem of insufficient availability of officially surveyed
building plots, residents have adopted a strategy of building their houses in
un-surveyed areas without seeking any official permission.
Failure of social
groups to be incorporate in the development process has been also a barrier to
service delivery in most countries where by the citizens do not take up what
the government has put in place. Recent reforms, especially those focusing on poverty
eradication, have sought to incorporate all social groups in the development
process. However, the politics of inclusion have been complicated by the sheer
number of interventions undertaken so far as well as the number of groups
engaged in the exercise. However, the challenge has once again led to the need
for strengthening the state, even at the local level. In many African
countries, the creation of effective local institutions to manage the various
interventions necessitated by decentralisation has only just begun. It will
thus take a while before the local level tender boards, drug procurement
procedures, auditing systems, sanctions for poor performance as well as
accountability to the Centre will work in practice for effective service
delivery. Also of interest is how local leaders will demonstrate accountability
to their constituencies.
Countries
where Local Government Councils have very little powers over their employees
becomes hard for them to ensure efficient performance and service delivery. In
fact, according to the 1967 Local Administration Act, even the smallest
employees in local government had to be appointed by the President. (Nsibambi1998).
This was the state of affairs until 1986 when the National Resistance Movement
under Museveni captured power.
This therefore slows down the rate of service delivery in such countries where
decentralisation is not well practiced.
Corruption
among Public and Civil servants and politicians also is a threat to service
delivery in most countries mainly of Africa.
For example Hon Jim Muhwezi was censured by the 6th Parliament
on grounds that he had abused office by peddling influence to get shares in
Crane Bank. However, in 2001, he was voted as a Member of Parliament for
Rujumbura County, and at the centre of a scandal involving management of the
Global Fund to fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria; and later the Global
Alliance for Vaccines and this slowed down the rate of health service delivery
in Uganda at that time it terms of ARVs supply and Immunisation.
Poor technology
in most countries and backwardness of people on the use of new technologies
most especially in third world countries has slowed down service delivery. The
world we know and understand is rapidly changing and this impact on social,
cultural, political and economic relations in society in terms of service
delivery. Information Technology has been cited as one of the more dominant
forces creating accelerated change. New information management technologies
have emerged making it possible for government to more effectively manage
information as a strategic resource, be more responsive and thereby attempt to
forge a better relationship with citizens. However, it is adopted I very few
countries mainly because at times less than 20% of the population can use such
technologies
Poor Sector Working Groups; Sector Working Groups (SWGs) have been
institutionalized in Uganda’s planning and budgeting process since 1996 and
represent the fora where central (finance, public service, local government)
and line ministries (e.g. health, education) and external stakeholders,
including donors and civil society coordinate sectoral planning and
budgeting. In the 2001/02 budget cycle, 16
SWGs were active, of essentially three generic types (Fölscher, 2001). Advanced
SWGs, involving health, education and roads, were characterized by their focus
on further sectoral prioritization and additional in-depth work on pay reform
in addition to issues standard SWGs considered covering analysis of past sector
policy performance, and planned policy, outputs and activities.
However when these working groups are poor in both planning and budgeting,
service delivery is hindered at times.
According to
Local Government Sector Investment Plan 2006-2016, development planning and
resource allocation is done through planning and budgeting. This process is a
policy embedded in the LG Act for LGs to develop three-year development plans
and budgets. However, the challenge is that there is less inclusion of village
level and parish level priorities in the sub-county/division plans. Therefore,
this has evidently lowered the rates of local financing most especially at
village and parish levels.
According to Ministry
of Local Government Decentralisation Policy Strategic Framework November 2006,
local governments have inadequate revenue for financing decentralized services
therefore this makes unfunded mandates a reality. According to the same book,
the cost of service delivery has not yet been established and the national
standards of service delivery are yet to be determined for the majority of
sectors thus making it difficult to determine the exact level of funding
requirement. It is also said that Local governments find it difficult to
provide for the operation and maintenance of their investments.
This
chapter provides information on data collection and the methods of data
analysis. It also presents statistically information on the study, nature of
the data used and the problems that are likely to be encountered in the study.
It
the research, the researcher used a case study design. This was used because;
Case study research excels at bringing the researcher to an understanding of a
complex issue or object and can extend experience or add strength to what is
already known through previous research. Case study design also emphasizes
detailed contextual analysis of a limited number of events or conditions and
their relationships.
The
study was conducted in Kanungu district within 4 Sub-counties of Kanungu Town
Council, Rutenga, Kayonza and Kirima. Kanungu
district is located in southwestern Uganda bordering the district of Rukungiri
in the north and east, Kabale in southeast, Kisoro in the south and Democratic
Republic of Congo in the west. It has a total area of 1,228.28 sq km with a
total population of 204,732. Its administrative headquarters are in Kanungu
town about 450 km from Kampala the capital city of Uganda. It has one county, 9
sub counties and 2 town councils. The total number of parishes is 54
parishes with 508 villages. The Northern forms part of the rift valley with
undulating plains. The middle part (sub counties of Rugyeyo, Kiriima, and parts
of Kanyantorogo) comprise of fairly flat-topped hills with gentle sloping sides
and broad valleys. The hills gradually increase in height to the highlands of
Rutenga with Burimbi peak of Mafuga being the highest at 822222 ft (2503 m)
above sea level. Part of Kihiihi sub county lie in the fridges of western
Eastern African rift valley.
2.3
Study population
The
study population was a specific population of Civil Servants, Politicians, tax
collectors Local population/ people above 27-60years of age and Business people
because they are believed to be the people with actual knowledge about GT and
who could at least had paid the tax.
This is mainly because they were the people that may have experienced the
process of graduated tax collection, used the graduated tax, and probably know
how LGs operate and deliver services to people and the sources of funding in
LGs and LLGs.
Table 1 Sample selection
Respondents
|
Number
|
Civil servants
like CAO, ACAO, Sub-County
Chiefs and Parish
Chiefs among others
|
40
|
Politicians
like District Councilors, District Chairperson LC 5, Chairpersons LC1, LC2,
LC3 and Sub-County
Councilors.
|
20
|
Local
population/ people above 27-60years of age
|
30
|
Business
people
|
30
|
The
researcher used both purposive and random sampling procedure to get the study participants/respondents. This study being both quantitative and qualitative
had 120 respondents from all the areas as mentioned above. Purposive sampling
category was used to help the researcher reach those few people who actually had
the information and knowledge about the topic.
3.5
Data collection methods and instruments
The
study was aided by an interview guide, questionnaire, and secondary data
sources.
The
Questionnaire method was employed which involved closed ended and structured,
open and closed ended questions. The questionnaires were distributed to
different members of the civil service, public service, business community and
other respondents as mentioned above who are identified as capable of giving
recorded data on statements and questions that are going to be guiding the
researcher in soliciting ideas and opinions
about the topic.
The
researcher intended to use this method because it is not at times easy to
access some people because they are in most cases busy doing some other
official work.
It
also helped the researcher to get well recorded first hand information that is
likely not to be duplicated as I record through interviewing.
This
also helped the researcher to get all the information he wished to get well
recorded on paper and eliminate misinterpretation of some information because the
researcher got enough time to interpret the data collected.
The
interview method was used and it involved face to face interaction. While responding, the researcher noted down on
paper their ideas, opinions and suggestions and stand on the research topic. The
researcher used the same questions in the questionnaires to administer
interviews especially to respondents who were not capable of writing down their
ideas and opinions.
Therefore,
interviews helped the researcher to get information from people who couldn’t read
and write and examined their reactions on the issue of graduated tax suspension.
They
helped also in getting first hand information directly from the respondents and
also got a chance of asking questions where the researcher failed to understand
mainly on the suggestions on where LGs can get more funding.
It
also helped to eliminate delays that would have been caused by respondents as
they at times take time to respond to questions through responding on
questionnaires.
It
also helped the researcher in taking clear and well understanding of data
directly from respondents.
The
data comprised of both primary and secondary data
Under
the primary sources the researcher obtained data from the respondents as
mentioned above.
Under
the secondary sources the researcher used old manuals, articles, LG documents for
example District Development Plan and other literature that is related to the
topic which included literature on graduated tax, articles from news papers,
graduated tax journals, presentations made in seminars and conferences and also
get some data from the internet. This helped the researcher in getting a
variety of information and be able to compare and come up with a clear view on
the abolition of Graduated tax.
The
researcher ensured that the respondents’ information was kept confidentially and
that the study was purely for academic and only was seeking knowledge and
experience used when delivering services and their stake on the abolition of
graduated tax and sources of revenue to LGs. Therefore, the researcher ensured that
any information collected was taken with care and was not used to abuse
someone’s rights or victimise any one by ensuring that it was confidential.
The
researcher submitted research proposal to his supervisor and was approved.
Therefore, he was then able to get the introductory letter from the department
of Public Administration and Management- Uganda Christian University-Mukono. The
researcher then was also able to get permission from the authorities and
response from respondents in the area of study. This enabled him to access information
from respondents because he had gained confidence in him that he was not any
person’s spy or after anything bad. Therefore, he was guided by the
questionnaires and interview guide to get any information and access any
research data from respondents.
Some
respondents were too busy. This made the researcher travel several times to
their offices hence costing a lot of time and money, at times the researcher
was even made to sit and wait for longer hours. The frequent postponement of
meeting busy respondents made the researcher incur more costs that were not
budgeted for.
The
researcher had to look for more money to cater for other days he traveled which
had not been budgeted for and in addition to this, he had to follow the
schedule given to him by the respondents and he was patient to wait until was
attended to.
Some
respondents were not willing to release certain information especially in the
finance departments this affected the researcher in that he had to spend more time
than anticipated explaining to the respondents the significance of the study
and therefore this was resolved by the researcher assuring the respondents that
information obtained from them will be for academic purposes only.
The
researcher did not have enough money by the time data was collected and the
increment in the days to meet respondents as a result of some respondents
telling him to come some other days even made it worse. This was solved by the
researcher getting a loan from friends whom he had to pay back after a certain
period of time.
It
was hard to collect data from some respondents as most of the time were out of
their offices to the fields and this was solved by obtaining data from the
district since some data was already submitted there while handing in their
budgets for approval and funding. All in all, the above problems encountered
did not affect the quality of this study.
The
researcher also faced a problem of long distances with poor means of transport.
This affected the administering of questionnaires and carrying out interviews
with some respondents. This limited the researcher on the number of people that
were reached and hence did not achieve the exact number of respondents that he
had anticipated to reach.
This
section presents and discusses the findings from the study. The Discussion is
based on four issues. This chapter begins with the findings identifying the rate at which services are
delivered after Graduated Tax abolition in LGs compared to before the abolition
of the tax in Kanungu District. Next is the identification of the sources of
revenues that finances the activities of LGs after the Graduated Tax abolition
in Uganda.
Third is an aim at identifying the challenges faced by LGs of Kanungu district
in delivery of services even after Graduated Tax abolition. Lastly it looks at
respondents’ opinions on viable ways of financing LGs.
This looks at the background of respondents in terms
of category. It categorises them into age, sex, education background, area of
residence and marital status.
Category
of respondents by age
This indicates the respondents from different age
groups categorised as a way of accessing which age group is best informed about
GT suspension impacts.
The category of respondents by age
Source: Field data
The pie chart above shows that 28.6% of the
respondents were between 27-35 years of age, 14.3% of 36-45 years, 24.3% of
46-55 years, 28.6% of 56-75 years and 4.3% of 75 and above years of age. This
therefore shows that since the respondents were all believed to be 27 years and
above and majority were between the ages of working group, they were able to
provide quality information about the study topic.
Educational
back ground
This shows the level of education of respondents
from the field. It ranges from degree, diploma, certificate, secondary
education and others including those who completed primary and those without
any kind of formal education.
The respondents’ category by education levels
Source: Field data
According to the chart
above, 27.1% were holders of a degree and other post-graduate courses/certificates,
15.7% were diploma holders, 28.6% had certificate holders, 15.7% were secondary
school drop outs and 12.9% were in the rest of the categories like not studied,
below secondary school among others. Therefore, it is believed that since most
of the respondents had achieved some levels of education, then the information
got was from an informed point of view therefore of good quality.
Category
of respondents by sex;
This indicates the gender of respondents and they
are categorised into two that is male and female as shown below;
Chat
3 Pie chart showing category of respondents by sex
Source: Field data
According to the pie chart above, 58.6%
of the respondents were male and the remaining 41.4% was female. Since there is
a small mergin in the percentgage of female and male respondents, that means
the research was gender senstive that is considered all geder types.
Area
represenattion/sub-county of residence
This covers the number of respondents interviwed from each
sub-county that is; number of respondents from Rutenge, Kanungu TC, Kirima and
Kayonza.
Graph 1 A bar
graph showing respondents from each sub-county
According to the graph above Kirima and Rutenga takes the
highest percentages in terms of number of respondents that is they equally
share 57.14% and Kanungu TC and Kayonza equally shares 42.85% of the number of
respondents. Many people were selected to be respondents in Kirima and Rutenga
sub-counties mainly because they seemed to be the most affeted areas by the GT
suspension and also they have a bigger population. Relatively few people were
selected from Kayonza and Kanungu TC because they at least experience
relatively high levels of service delivery.
Cetegorisation by
Marital status
This also categorises respondents in terms of their marital
status. They are categorised into married, single and divorced or the ‘other’
category which included Widows and widowers.
Graph 2 A bar
graph showing the marital status of respondents
As found out, it is believed that the rate of
service delivery in LLGs has reduced due to the abolition of graduated tax
though there are some people who are less informed about it. The following is
how people responded towards the rate of service delivery after and before the abolition
of Graduated tax in their respective sub-counties in Kanungu district. This
relates to what Anne Mette Kjaer Geneva 9-10 December
2006 stresses that, services are not delivered because of the abolition of
graduated tax problem, and still accountability is not given to people.
Table
2: Statistics on people’s opinion on Graduated
tax suspension and service delivery
Sub-County
|
High Service deliver before abolition of GT
|
High service delivery
levels after abolition of GT
|
No idea
|
Kirima
|
10
|
9
|
1
|
Rutenga
|
12
|
6
|
2
|
Kayonza
|
12
|
1
|
2
|
Kanungu TC
|
12
|
3
|
0
|
Source:
Field data
The table above clearly illustrates that in all
sub-counties of Kirima, Rutenga, Kayonza and Kanungu Town Council had high
rates of service delivery before the suspension of Graduated tax compared to
after its suspension. Therefore, it is evident that service delivery rates in
Kanungu District reduced due to GT abolition. It was found out that graduated
tax was contributing to service delivery and development in lower local
governments in many aspects like construction of offices according to Silver
Turyahikayo of Kirima and ACAO Kanungu District. It was also found out that
services stopped after the abolition of Graduated tax hence causing a negative
impact to both individual citizens and the society as a whole. The negative
impacts according to the findings include; Poor service delivery for example
responsible poor had no means for supervision of services being delivered by
LLGs and poor road networks in rural areas of Kanungu district. It was also
found out that to some extent the graduated tax was of no positive impact to
LLGs. Service delivery levels are poor according to findings when comparing
before the abolition of graduated tax and after its abolition. This is
estimated by respondents to be at a rate of 30% decrease in levels of service
delivery and say there has been no increase in service delivery after the
abolition of Graduated tax. This means that there have been some services
denied after the suspension of graduated tax that were being provided to LLGs
before the abolition. Services denied include maintenance and construction of
feeder roads in rural areas of Kanungu District and less monitoring of projects
and programmes of LL Gs leading to shoddy work and corruption (Richard Kalema,
Personnel office Kanungu District LG).
It was found out that there is failure to complete the
approved projects due to limited funds; “sometimes we end a Financial Year
without completing the projects which were supposed to be implemented in the
previous FY because of limited finances” The District Chairperson, Can.
Josephine Kasya said. It was also found out that such projects were previously
being implemented by money collected form GT which was suspended. Such projects
among others include community feeder roads.
Findings have it that there are some delays in release of
graduated tax compensation fund from the CG; according to the District Finance
Officer, the central government delays in releasing the compensation funds.
According to him, at times the CG releases GT compensation in the middle of the
3rd Quota. It was also found out that this delays work of the
government and leads to poor service delivery.
It was also found out that there is limited facilitation
especially in carrying out monitoring of development projects in LLGs; civil
servants according to respondents are poorly motivated while monitoring
government programmes. It was said that this is basically because GT was
actually mostly used to do this function but after its suspension such problems
begun to arise. According to Mr. Silver Turyahikayo ACAO Kanungu District LG,
there are times where civil servants fail to get transport when they are going
to monitor government programmes.
It was found out that there is also a problem where unskilled
personnel work on community roads and at time even Main roads connecting the
Kanungu district with other districts; according to the District Chairperson
Can. Josephine Kasya, most roads in Kanungu district are in a poor state
because they are being worked on by unskilled personnel using hand hoes and
speds. This is due to lack of enough funds to facilitate a tractor to work on
roads. According to her, such roads alongside community roads include Kanungu
Kabale road.
Shortage of drugs in health centres was also
identified as one of the problems faced due to suspension of GT. According to Mr. Bwambale Boaz, In Charge
Rutenga Health Centre three there are at times no drugs in health centres which
he attributed to the suspension of GT. According to him, before suspension of
GT, such problems were not there. This relates to findings by Moses L. Golola
2001 that taxes are the major/chief funders of LG health service delivery.
Limited supply of clean water in most communities was
also said to be one of the problems that accrued after suspension of GT.
According to the Town Clerk Kanungu TC, there is poor supply of clean water in
town because of limited capacity by TC to facilitate water supply. She went
ahead and attributed the problem to GT suspension because according to her GT
played an upper hand in water supply.
Supervision of the ongoing projects has been
tampered with most especially those managed at LLG
levels. It was also found out that there is poor monitoring and supervision of
government projects like roads due to limited funds to facilitate supervisors.
Most respondents said there is limited facilitation of supervisors of
government projects leading to produce of poor quality out puts like poor
quality roads. This according to them is due to GT suspension.
Increased prices of most commodities in the market;
some respondent said the tax burden to compensate for GT has been put on the
producers of goods and service providers leading increasing prices of commodities which people
say is more worse than GT its’ self. “We better pay GT than buying commodities
at very high prices like we are doing now” Ben Kadogo of Kanungu TC said.
It was also found out that there has been a decrease
in service delivery levels due to graduated tax abolition in Kanungu district.
This was evidenced by the fact that 80% of the respondents said service
delivery was high before the suspension of graduated tax compared to today.
It was also found out that there is unequal
distribution of services between higher LGs and LLGs in Kanungu district.
According to the ACAO Kanungu Silver Turyahikayo, lower local governments are
cheated by Town Councils when it comes to resource allocation like grants and
taxes collected.
There are also inefficiencies in departmental
funding such as the Administration department hence low motivation to do work
effectively and efficiently. According to some respondents like the District
Planner there is now less motivation of employees when comparing before
abolition of GTand after abolition.
It was found out that graduated tax used to fund
dairy work of LLG officials like Sub-county
Chiefs as they executed
their duties. However, after the abolition of the tax the rate of
Administrative concentration on monitoring and supervision of government
activities reduced because of limited facilitation.
The above have therefore according to findings led
to less concentration of Administrators on government programmes like Feeder
road construction and ensuring efficient and effective health services in LGs.
However, it was also found out that the rate at which service delivery has reduced
due to the abolition of GT is moderate.
Another greatest impact of GT suspension according to
respondents is on basic administration of the Local Councils and facilitation
of local Councillors. According to the District Chairperson Can. Josephine
Kasya, Kanungu district cannot pay councillors’ allowances effectively. This at
times halts the budgeting and planning in the district. Without councils
meeting and taking decisions, the district and the sub-counties cannot execute
programmes since the administrative elites do not have the endorsement of council.
This has further weakened the implementation of decentralisation and popular
participation and in the end increase dependence of LGs on the centre.
Sub-counties that had limited local revenue collection had not convened council
meetings as regularly as required.
Table 3
classification of LG sources of revenue
Name of sub county
|
Source of revenue collected
|
Kanungu Town
Council
|
Licenses and
permits from Timber traders and shop keepers, traditional healers, Birth
attendants, market dues, ground rent, land registration fees, lodgings and
hotel taxes
|
Kayonza
|
Licenses and
permits from shops, clinics, factories, petrol stations, market and Bodaboda
fees among others.
|
Kirima
|
Licenses and
permits from shops, beer brewing permits, clinics, market and Bodaboda fees
among others.
|
Rutenga
|
Licenses and
permits from shops, clinics, butcheries, tree falling, road tolls, timber
moving permits, market and Bodaboda fees etc.
|
Source:
Field data
4.4 Sources of revenue that
finances the activities of LGs after the Graduated Tax suspension in Kanungu
District.
The
above table illustrates the different sources of revenue collected from
different sub counties as a way of raising local revenue to finance service
delivery to the local people in Kanungu District. With the suspension of GT by the central
Government, lower local Governments in Kanungu District did not just sit and
watch how services would be rendered to the local people but instead came up
with new mechanisms of financing local services.
Details on other sources of revenue for Kanungu
district LGs according to respondents are;
According
to findings Different lower local governments within the District collect
different revenues depending on the nature of the revenue bases in their
localities as represented in table 3 above. These licenses bring in different
revenues that are being used to finance the delivery of services to the local
people.
Market dues,
it was discovered by the researcher that the District is copying up with
financing service delivery through charging and collecting market dues where by
the bigger and activeness of the markets, the more the revenue collected. More
revenue is collected from urban markets which are bigger with more buyers
compared to village markets which are smaller with fewer buyers. According to
Kalema Richard, Market dues are major sources of LLG revenue.
Bodaboda and park fees
are also sources of revenue in Kanungu district. Findings have it that the District is also
surviving by collecting revenue from bodaBoda cyclists and Taxi operators. This
revenue collected is used to finance service delivery hence making the
provision of local services continue after GT. suspension. Other licenses that have helped Kanungu
District to thrive in financing and providing services include business
licenses in tea and coffee factories have contributed to revenue generation to
the District and enabled the District to deliver some services.
It
was found out that another source of revenue has been Tender fees. This has brought in some revenue to the District that
has been very helpful in financing the delivery of services where by the
business people who want to supply commodities or be awarded contracts have to
pay a non refundable fee to the district as they submit their applications and
whether they have been or not successful, the money they have paid is not
refunded to them. According to the Procurement Officer Kanungu district, buying
of bid documents contributes at least some amount of revenue to the
district.
It
was found out that Tree falling taxes are part of revenue collected by LLGs in
Kanungu district most especially Rutenga sub-county; this was introduced by the
National Environmental Management Authority to reduce the levels of tree
cutting in Uganda.
According to the Sub-county Chief Rutenga sub-county, every
tree is taxed 1000 Ugandan shillings. This has boomed local revenue collection
in the district.
It
was also found out that other sources of revenue in Kanungu District are Lands
registrations, Bill boards, Development Tax and NAADS service providers’
registration fees. The yield from such taxes is incomprehensible as many things
happen between collection and delivery.
Another
source of revenue in Kanungu district according to findings has been the local service tax. Under this Tax, all
practicing professionals such as lawyers, teachers, doctors, engineers are
required to pay a tax which ranges from Shs5000 to Shs100, 000 per person per
year. The argument in support of this tax is that the suspension of Graduated
Tax created a funding gap in the local governments with in Kanungu District.
Therefore the Local Service Tax is to cure this problem. Under the new law, the
non-professionals who are required to pay the Local Service Tax are people who
are carrying out commercial farming on more than two acres of land or have more
than 20 cows. Local service tax
according to Moses L. Golola 2001 was introduced in 2008 to boost local revenue
collection.
It
was also found out that Kanungu district LG collects Hotel tax was also suggested. The introduction of the hotel tax to
the hotel occupants was to generate revenue to the District. Each hotel/Lodge
occupant was asked to pay some money to the district as a tax. The money was to
be collected by the hotel operators and there after collected from them by the
tax collectors was to be sent to the District. This same tax was also said by
Moses L. Golola 2001 as a tax introduced in 2008 to boost the revenue
collection in LGs across the country.
According to findings, Kanungu district also
collects Property Tax: Even though property is unevenly
distributed with some people having more property than others especially in
towns where we have the majority of people having more property in terms of
buildings, cars and other wealth with much higher values compared to the ones
in the rural areas where a number of properties owned have low values attached
to them, levying taxes can vary depending on where the property is owned. According
to Mr. Richard Bampabwire LC3 Chairperson Rutenga Sub-county, this tax is
levied on a person who poses a lot of wealth like cattle and other property.
Findings also have it that fines are also part of contributors to LG
revenue collected by Kanungu district LG. It was found out that in
Kanungu district, another way of local governments raising
local Revenue is through levying fines to culprits that have been convicted of
breaking the law. For example those who don’t want to pay taxes and others that
have committed offences whether small or big should be asked to pay a certain
amount of money by the courts of law in which they are being convicted. The
amount can be charged basing on the financial status or the kind of work the
one convicted does. Since there are many law breakers among which may be Bodaboda
cyclists and motorists that can for a big base, this will increase Revenue for
the lower local governments.
In
addition to the above mechanisms, the district was coping up by the help of the
central government transfers that have supplemented the District’s efforts of
raising money to finance local service provision.
Conditional grants which run many of the district
programmes and examples include; road grants, UPE and USE grants and Primary
Health Care grants among others.
Unconditional grants which are in most cases used to
pay salaries of employees however, findings have it that after paying salaries
what remains in added on locally generated revenues to finance other activities
of LGs.
It was found out that the district also gets revenues
from Revenue sharing with Uganda Wildlife Authority majorly from Bwiindi
impenetrable National Park. According to the forestry Officer Kanungu district
Bwindi impenetrable National Park contributes to the revenue of Kanungu
district LG.
Graduated Tax compensation fund which is also given to
LGs to compensate for what graduated tax used to contribute. According to
revenue collection in Kanungu District, the above local sources plus the GTC
contribute about 50% of the income.
Findings however have it that GT
before its abolition used to
contribute only 4% to the locally generated revenue. This was a big percent to
be collected from other local revenue sources as mentioned above. However, it
was also found out that the GTcompensation given to LGs does not cover the gap of GT
used to cover hence proving
it not to be enough.
According to the findings, there has been a challenge
of determining how much a tax payer can contribute or pay. According to T.
Silver ACAO Kanungu District LG, “it is very hard to determine how much tax a
tax payer is expected to pay”. This is related to levies on people’s property
like cattle. It has been a challenge in that most people’s property cannot
easily be identified because of having much wealth all over. This leads to
taxing of less property when actually people hold a lot of property to be
taxed. This also refer to what LGFC 2009 has written about that LGs face a
challenge of levying taxes most especially on property/wealth taxes.
According to findings, there is also Tax defaulting by
most tax payers; this is in other words called tax evasion. Most people decide
to dodge paying taxes that have been levied on them by the authorities. This
ranges from market dues to other forms of taxes as mentioned above including
property taxes. People at times claim that they have not raised money to pay or
decide to hide. This is also talked about by Ministry of
Local Government Decentralisation Policy Strategic Framework November 2006 that
tax defaulting is a major hindrance of revenue collection in LGs.
It was also found out that hiding of wealth and other
transactions being made by business men is a hindrance to revenue collection in
Kanungu District; in Kanungu district most especially Rutenga sub-county,
traders of timber transport their timber to Kabale and other places very late
in the night which makes the work of collecting taxes from them very tiresome.
“Most lumberpersons hide the number of trees and timber cut from tax
collectors” Sub-county
Chief Rutenga
Sub-county said.
Findings also have it that there is poor assessment of
markets; “market estimation has been poorly done most especially by officials
at the District tender board hence giving chance to tender holders to cheat
them leading to less collection form the market” District Procurement Officer
Kanungu District said. This is most especially related to market
income/collection under estimation.
It was also found out that there is Government
interference in tax collection and limited decentralisation of some taxes like
Pay as You Earn (PAYEE); this is said to have reduced on the amount of money
LGs could have collected as taxes. Government through URA ends up crossing up
to LGs and gets such taxes which are taken to Central Government hence lowering
the Local Government collections and administration. According to ACAO Kanungu
district LG politicians interfere with revenue collection processes.
Failure of local population/citizens/tax payers to
respond to taxpaying positively and being reluctant on paying taxes has also
affected Local tax collection in LGs of Kanungu district. This has reduced tax
collection rates gradually. According to Kalema Richard Personnel Officer
Kanungu District LG, tax payers have not yet known the relevance of paying
taxes so they at times end up evading paying taxes. He went ahead and said
Ignorance of most people on the importance of paying tax among most people in
Kanungu district who do not have knowledge on the importance of taxpaying has
caused poor revenue collection. According to him, they are not informed and
sensitised on the taxpaying importance hence at times end up evading
taxes.
The researcher was also
interested in understanding the respondents opinion’s on the total abolition of
GT and the bar graph below summarises the
responses;
Source: Field
data
According
to the findings as shown in the graph above, 57(81%) of respondents suggested
that Graduated tax should be completely suspended and 13(19%) of respondents
suggested that graduated tax should be brought back. Those who say it should be
completely suspended base on the fact that; “its collection methods were poor:
Grace Kanyatsi said. This was also discussed by Godfrey Bahigwa, Frank E, Odd-Helge F
(2001) that GT collection methods were of harassment and oppression of tax
payers before its abolition.Depending
on their opinions therefore, they had to suggest other ways in which LGs can
raise the revenue base to best finance its projects and programmes. For example
according to Mr. Kalema Richard of Kirima, graduated tax though brought back
will cause no impact to service delivery therefore said it should completely be
suspended but methods put in place to replace it.
It was found out that the suspension of GT which was
collected by Police and sub-county Chiefs was irrelevant to LGs. It is also
important to note that apart from grants like conditional, unconditional and
equalization grants and GT compensation received from Central Government LGs do
not receive any other help from the CG. However, it is also important to note
that some people do not wish for the return of graduated tax.
It was also found out that the Graduated tax
compensation fund does not cover the gap of graduated tax in LGs therefore
rendering it insufficient in LG’s programme funding. This was according to the
District Planner Kanungu district LG. Therefore, respondents propose that there
should be other means devised by LGs to ensure that their programmes are
effectively and efficiently funded to ensure effective service delivery. Ways
of revenue collection proposed by respondents include;
However, according to Mr. Silver Turyahikayo ACAO
Kanungu district LG, imposing of more taxes to local citizens and on some
projects to ensure that revenue of LGs is raised and projects funded
effectively can be a strategy to compensate for GT. This should be done to increase
the local tax base in LGs and LLGs of Kanungu district.
Construction and establishment of LG projects; that
is according to Mr. Ezera Twongyeirwe of Kayonza and some other respondents, LGs
can put in place some projects that can generate income with the mandate of the
District Council. Examples of projects proposed include; Construction of rental
houses for stalls and accommodation and other income generating projects like
lodges and hotels.
Respondents also proposed the widening of the tax
margin and base; that is; increasing on the amount each taxpayer contributes as
a tax to ensure that the total revenue collection is slightly increased in LGs.
This should be done to taxpayers with a high taxable capacity and with big tax
base in the district.
Ensuring proper implementation of policies and
establishment of new taxes like hotel tax; according to Kalema Richard of Kirima Sub-county,
LGs should effectively implement tax collection laws and policies and also
introduce new taxes to widen the revenue collection gap in Kanungu district.
According to Mr. Magezi councilor Kanungu TC LGs
should solicit for donations from friends and well-wishers of the district; it
is important to note that the district has some people willing to fund some of
its programmes and projects therefore, after planning LG officials should
ensure that they look for funders who would be willing to take up such projects
in the District.
It was also suggested by respondents that there
should be decentralisation of some taxes like PAYE; it was found out that some
taxes are collected by the Central Government through URA can be decentralized
to enable LGs generate more revenue from its resources including human
resources. Such taxes among others include Pay as You Earn. PAYE is a tax collected/deducted
from salaries of Civil Servants, Public Servants, Politicians and employees in
the private sector. Turyahikayo Safali Makacya District Councilor Rutenga
sub-county suggested that some taxes collected by the central government should
be decentralized and be collected by LGs.
This
chapter summarizes the findings of the study, conclusions and recommendations
to improve the situation in tax Administration and service delivery in LLGs of
Kanungu district. Therefore, it is a tool for ensuring effective management of locally
generated Revenues.
According
to findings as indicated above, service delivery levels in LLGs in Kanungu
district before the suspension of GT was high. It was however also found out
that the rate of service delivery has reduced basically in sectors like
transport, education, health and sanitation among others. Over 80% of the respondents
had it that service delivery levels have reduced due to GT suspension.
Therefore,
findings have it that GT suspension has done more harm than good in service
delivery aspects. The study found out
that since GT formed the main source of local revenue generation in Kanungu
district LG; its suspension had a lot of negative consequences in the lower
local governments which included among poor rural road construction and
maintenance and poor health sector service delivery.
Reliance
of the lower local governments on central government transfers that are
associated with problems like insufficiency, unevenly distributed and poorly
administered among others. There is also limited local revenue collection; it
was also found out that LGs have limited tax base hence low levels of local
revenue collection. Introduction of new taxes such as the local service and
hotel taxes which at times have inconvenienced business men and de-motivated
them to invest.
General
reduction in service delivery; it was found out that there are some services
like community roads maintenance and construction which were denied hence poor
service delivery.
General
attitude of people not wanting to pay taxes thinking that the only tax they
were supposed to pay was GT which was abolished by the president. Poor
monitoring and management of government programmes due to abolition of GT
leading to poor service delivery
It was also found out that the following are the
current sources of revenue for Kanungu district LG; Local Service tax, Local Hotel Tax, Property rates, Market dues, Trading
licenses, Liquor licenses, Permits for stage plays and public entertainment, Fish
licensing fees, Loyalties, Fines under the Public Health Act, Registration fees,
Parking fees, User fees and other charges, Education tax, Health tax, Toll
on roads, bridges, ferries maintained by the District Government, Rent for
land, buildings, equipment, machinery and vehicles and Fee for major industrial
exhibitions and other public events organized by the District Government among
others as discussed above.
Having
found out a number of problems faced by LGs in Kanungu district in service
delivery after the suspension of GT the following are some of the findings on
alternative sources of revenue in Kanungu District; Respondents said there
should be Increment in indirect taxes through increased prices of commodities.
“LGs should try to find ways of increasing indirect taxation on companies that
produce some goods” District Planner Kanungu district said. Respondents also
proposed that LGs should try to put in place LG income generating
activities/projects to raise its revenue collection.
It
was also found out that LGs should try to seek for grants and donations and
stop only waiting for CG transfers and grants. This was proposed by Twingyeirwe
Ezera of Kayonza who said that “LGs should like any other organisation seek for
funders of their projects”. It was also suggested that the CG should
decentralize some taxes like PAYE and let them be managed by LGs. This was
suggested by Mr. Silver Turyahikayo ACAO Kanungu district.
The
percentage contribution of GT to locally raised revenue at LLG was significant
and crucial for the functioning of LGs. Since government suspended GT, it will
be an uphill task to find about 5% which represented net Local revenue
collection at LG’s level to replace it. As found out that the rate of service
delivery reduced due to GT suspension, LGs should ensure that strategies to
improve service delivery even after suspension of GT are put in place. Tax
evasion and corruption/lack of accountability is among the outstanding problems
LGs in Kanungu district face in administration of local revenue. Hence
improvements in administration are a key to service delivery and widening of
the revenue gap.
Public/Civil
Servants have a challenge of limited motivation therefore poor service
delivery. Therefore, strategies to improve motivation could be put in place and
also be intrinsically motivated to work. On the side of expenditure, locally
raised revenues principally finance day to day routine administrative services,
council allowances, and co-funding for programs such as Local development Grant
under LGDP expenditures. The suspension of graduated tax undermined service
delivery by the local authorities. Government needs to sensitize the people
about the need of paying taxes such that the thinking in the people that all
the taxes were removed by the president is removed and before introducing the
new taxes it will be good for the government to first teach people these taxes
such that they understand them for easy acceptability. Other challenges that
emanated from the suspension of GT that need clear attention are limited
financing of LG programmes due to unequal distribution of finances like compensation
funds and equalization grants in LLGs.
Emphasis
on sources of revenue for LGs is a key to performance in service delivery.
Therefore, LGs which are performing put much emphasis on the management and
administration of the revenues collected. Need for best administration of taxes
is very essential in Public service delivery in Kanungu district.
Innovations
among LG officials is key to ensure that even after the suspension of GT there
is a number of income generating activities at LG levels. This should be done
to ensure that the gap created by the abolition of GT is covered and service
delivery is consistent in both LGs and LLGs of Kanungu district. This should be
through council meetings and innovation of the District Planner.
The
study recommends that the following should be considered if service delivery is
to be enhanced in lower local governments effectively even after the abolition
of G/t.
As findings have it that most people evade taxes in
Kanungu district, there is need for improvement of existing tax administration
systems. The government needs to conduct studies
in the following areas; improving tax administration (assessment and
valuation), Improved Tax collection methods for example privatization, Tax data
management and use, Accountability and good governance, Expenditure
rationalizations that is review the major sectors and activities to which local
revenue is allocated including political and administrative structures.
The
Parish can be the main collection centre and the Parish Chief can act as
accounting officer. All persons
who will be deemed below an established poverty line for the District can be
exempted from tax payment. The powers to exempt a taxpayer can be vested in the
LC1 Council on the advice of the Parish Chief. The LC1 can be required and
facilitated to keep and maintain a simple taxpayer register at the LC1 level.
The LC1 taxpayer’s registers can be consolidated by the Parish Chief. The extract of the tax payment register can
be published or displayed permanently on LC Notice-boards every quarter.
Likewise accountability for use of funds collected should also be displayed for
each quarter. The local governments can use existing guidelines
and other guidelines developed by MOLG and LGFC for assessment.
Equalization grants are not evenly distributed because of insufficiency
hence there is Need for enough Equalization from the central government; it
is as a result of these inequities that the need for equalization arises.
Equalization is the desire by the central government to provide extra funds to
those local governments whose revenue raising capacities are weak and
expenditure needs great (as compared to other local Governments) to enable them
provide a “minimum” level of service to their constituents. The main vehicle
for channeling these funds to those "needy" local governments is the
equalization grant. Clause 4 of Article 193 of the 1995 Constitution
(elaborated on in Section 84 of the Local Government Act of 1997) defines the
Equalization Grant as "...Money to be paid to local governments for giving
subsidies or making special provisions for the least developed districts; and
shall be based on the degree to which a local government is lagging behind the
national average standard for a particular service”. By implementing the
equalization grant scheme, it is expected that local governments which are
disadvantaged either in terms of high expenditure need or low revenue potential
will be subsidized to a level where they can at least provide a "minimum level
of service delivery".
However, this should
not only stop at LG levels but should also extend to LLGs. It was found out
that when LGs receive equalization funds, they distribute them among LLGs in an
unequal manner. That is some sub-counties are favoured compared to others when
it comes to distribution of equalization grant. Therefore, LG officials should
also ensure that there is proper management of equalization grant.
Sensitizing
the citizens on the importance of paying taxes; most especially in LLGs people
are not informed on the importance of paying taxes they have an attitude that
their money is only eaten by LG officials and does not do any constructive
work.
Timely
disbursement of GT compensation by the central government; there is also need for
the Central Government to release GT compensation funds in time to enable
timely execution of duties by Civil servants and monitoring of government
programmes.
Streamlining
the collection and administration of taxation in the districts; there is need for
a clear body and administrative unit responsible for collection and
administration of locally generated taxes in Kanungu district. This should be
put in place because many people handle tax collection and administration ends
up becoming poor hence less accountability in the system.
The
central government should empower and facilitate the districts to collect taxes
without political influence. It was found out that there is a lot of political
interference in tax collection and administration systems. However, this should
be worked on by the central government by giving LG officials autonomy of
collecting taxes.
Reduce
the burden of local revenues financing large administrative and political
structures. At LC1 and LC2 there should not be full time Executive Committee
members and the number of civil servants should be small. This should be done
to reduce unnecessary spending at LLG levels and administrative spending.
There
is also need for the central government to ensure that there are enough funds
allocated to LGs in form of unconditional grants. This is essential when it
comes to increasing the revenue base to facilitate the activities of LGs and
LLGs in the district.
Decentralisation
of more sources of revenue to LGs. Respondents said it is better for the
government to allow LGs collect taxes which they collect from civil servants
like PAYE and other taxes and sources of revenue like from tourism among
others. This is mainly to raise the levels of revenue collection to LGs and
allowing them to enjoy their privileges.
Restoration
of GT and lifting its collection by responsible LGs; it was found out that some
Civil Servants would wish the Central Government to restore the collection of GT
and then put improvements in its collection by mainly LGs responsible for the
collection of GT. Give LCs independence in the collection of Local taxes. LGs
collect taxes from people and LCs do not have any autonomy to collect such
local taxes leading to some tax evasions mainly because LG officials at times
do not know who tax payers are in a certain village or cell.
Mass
sensitization and civic education to ensure that Tax payers are aware of the
importance of paying taxes and to whom they should pay; it was found out that
most people think taxes are just utilized by LG officials for their own
benefits hence end up evading taxpaying. Therefore, people recommended that
there should be programmes aiming at educating people about the importance of
taxpaying and uses of taxes collected/how taxes are spent.
There
should also be harmony between politicians and technocrats in the district;
that is at times there is political interference in tax collection based on
issues of political affiliation and technical “Know who”. Therefore,
respondents recommended that there should be harmony between the two parties to
ensure that tax collection is efficient and effective.
Awarding
of tax collection tenders most especially in markets to skilled and competent
people; it was found out that the District Procurement Committee awards tenders
to tax collectors who are not competent and more so corrupt hence they end up
collecting less money as tax from markets or even embezzle the less that has
been collected therefore leading to less returns from markets. In this case
therefore, respondents said only skilled and trustable people should be awarded
such tenders.
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