TCS to install integrated tax system in Uganda

MUMBAI, INDIA & KAMPALA, UGANDA: Tata Consultancy Services, has won a transformational engagement from the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) to design and install an integrated tax administration system.

The new system will manage all domestic taxes and duties for the URA, including income tax, value-added tax, withholding tax and other excise duties. It will help the URA increase the level of tax compliance in the country, broaden the tax base and provide efficient services to Uganda's tax payers.

The new system is an integrated solution that will help URA to scrutinize the tax returns more effectively and improve compliance level by having a single and integrated view of the tax payer and provide increased convenience for tax payers. URA has received financial support from DFID of the United Kingdom, The Kingdom of the Netherlands, The Kingdom of Belgium and Government of Uganda to fund this project worth approximately $11.5 million.

Under the project, a suite of applications would be developed for effecting and monitoring key activities of a tax administration like registration, returns, payments, assessment, tax-payer accounts, audit, compliance, objections, appeals and investigations. The TCS-developed system incorporates best international practices, security features on a highly secure platform accessible only to select users. It will be implemented in phases at every tax office in Uganda.

"With our strong domain expertise in executing tax administration systems for various tax authorities across the globe, TCS will assist Uganda Revenue Authority in business process re-engineering, capacity building and change management to improvise and optimize the business process' execution jointly with URA management," said N. Chandrasekaran, COO and Executive Director, TCS. "The new integrated system will reduce IT and operational costs and processing cycle times, while improving fiscal transparency and financial accountability."

Part of the project encompasses a citizen portal which would act as the interface of the URA with its stakeholders and would ensure 24x7 availability. "The citizen portal would bring the much needed transparency in the tax administration by giving taxpayers online access to all the information pertaining to tax administration. The taxpayers would be facilitated to submit applications online, track the application status and make e-payment through the citizen portal," said Tanmoy Chakrabarty, Vice President and Head, Global Government Unit at TCS.

TCS would also provide a Human Resource Management System (HRMS), Document Management System (DMS) and Case Tracking System (CTS) as part of the project scope. HRMS would cover all aspects of HR function through the lifecycle of an employee. DMS is intended to create a digitized repository

of all the important documents along with an efficient document storage and retrieval. CTS would create a central repository for managing information triggered by various events that can originate in the system and from other sources and channels.