Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) has Monday morning launched a countrywide enforcement on the use of Electronic Physical Receipting and Invoicing Solutions (EFRIS) and digital tax stamps
EPRIS is a system that was developed by URA to ensure that every VAT (Value Added Tax) registered taxpayers issues their invoices in an electronic manner using the EPRIS.
This was effective January 1, 2021 and since then, URA has been engaging, sensitizing and supporting various clients of the URA taxpaying community.
Launching the exercise at Capital Shoppers, Ntinda in Kampala, Paddy Ochieng, the manager Domestic Taxes – Central Region said “very many have come on board to issue e-receipts or e-invoices using this solution.”
He says that the solution can be embraced through system to system integration where the various systems that the taxpayers use in their businesses can be integrated with EPRIS and invoices issued through that interface.
He adds that, “It can also be done using the URA web portal but also it can be done using the physical electronic devices.”
He, however, says that as much as many of them (taxpayers) have complied to the requirement, there is still a challenge in terms of compliance level where he says that some have chosen to not issue invoices . Others, he adds, have engaged in practices like issuing invoices selectively while others have engaged in practices such as issuing invoices relating to just a few of their transactions.
So, he says, “the purpose of today’s operation (November 1, 2021) is that we have launched a countrywide enforcement of the use of EPRIS. We have staff that will be deployed at different supermarkets.”
This, he says, follows an engagement that “we had with the association of supermarket owners and also a variety of supermarket owners.”
As a result, he says “we are going to deploy staff at the different supermarkets and the purpose is to confirm if indeed these supermarkets are issuing e-invoices for every transaction and not selectively like our intelligence has revealed. So, the call to action today is for all supermarket owners and all taxpayers at large, particularly those who are registered for VAT to embrace EPRIS. To issue and use the EPRIS solution because this solution comes with numerous benefits.”
The benefits, he says, includes helping in fortifying the ability for businesses to keep their records but also helps in real-time tracking and authentication of business transactions
“Clients who have been applying for tax refunds. The EPRIS solution will quicken the process of refund because business systems will be in the system that is accessible to URA. Also very important is that the EPRIS will reduce the physical loss of documents that previously were maintained physically by many businesses. In the future, it will also aid pre-filing of tax returns which will eliminate the burden from our tax payers from the requirements for them to download Excel return templates and complete because all this information will be with URA and tax returns will be pre-filled,” he says.
Ochieng says the exercise is in line with the ease of doing business.
“Certainly it will improve our rating as a country in terms of doing business so the call to action is for all taxpayers to embrace and use EPRIS because of the numerous benefits but also to the taxpaying community to demand EPRIS invoices every time they go shopping,” he says.
According to Ochieng, for every taxpayer who demands an e-receipt, there is a 5% rebate that will be given to every shopper who demands an e-invoice.
To this, he appealed to the public to “join URA in the implementation of the use of EPRIS so that the benefits mentioned and realized and together we develop our country.”
– businessfocus.co.ug
