Uganda Misses Seven-Month Revenue Target as Oil Taxes Decline

Uganda’s revenue in the first seven months of the 2012-13 financial year fell 2.5 percent below target as lower oil imports reduced duties, the Uganda Revenue Authority said.

Tax collection in East Africa’s third-biggest economy from July through February amounted to 4.57 trillion shillings ($1.73 billion), the agency said in an e-mailed statement from Kampala, the capital. The deficit for the period is 115 billion shillings, it said.

The nation’s oil imports in February declined 2.1 percent from a year earlier because of problems at neighboring Kenya’s Mombasa port, Uganda’s gateway to the sea, the agency said. Gasoline imports declined 6.1 percent to 39.1 million liters, while diesel dropped 6 percent to 59.3 million liters from a year ago levels, the authority said.

Uganda, which relies on donors including U.S., U.K, Germany, European Union, Denmark, Norway and Japan to fund a quarter of its annual budget, targets collecting 7.2 trillion shillings in taxes this year, according to the authority.

To contact the reporter on this story: Fred Ojambo in Kampala at fojambo@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Paul Richardson at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net.