The Assistant Commissioner, Medium Tax Office and Public Sector, Rose Wangwe, met with the Assistant Inspector General of Police and Director of Traffic and Road Safety, Lawrence Nuwabiine, last Friday, to discuss strategies to harmonise the Express Penalty System (EPS) arrears. The meeting took place at the Uganda Police Force (UPF) Command Centre at Nateete.

The meeting is a culmination of a URA and UPF collaboration in developing a robust system to capture relevant information about traffic penalty tickets.

“This system has eliminated various concerns that the UPF’s Traffic and Road Safety department had, including duplication of serial numbers, forgery and distribution of Police Book 26, and delays in reporting. We are pleased that this new system will lower the cost of the ticketing systems and ensure seamless transfer of data,” Wangwe said.

Nuwabiine noted that there is a substantial accumulation of arrears that arose from errors captured during the manual issuance of tickets on paper. Nuwabiine and Wangwe deliberated on the best course of action to solve this looming issue.

“We will have to engage MDAs that have accumulated traffic fines and encourage them to clear their arrears. It is also important to support public awareness campaigns to encourage EPS compliance. This will boost our non-tax revenue,” Wangwe added.

The AC’s discussion with the UPF was fruitful and offered a fresh opportunity for more productive collaborations.

URA’s commitment to bolster national development does not end at collection of taxes. We are constantly pushing the envelope to collaborate with key stakeholders to develop structures to improve government processes.

By Elma Asio