By Rosette Nandutu

The Uganda Registration Services Bureau (URSB) has collected a total of Ugx 45.87Bn in non-tax revenue for the period July 2021 to April 7th 2022 against a target of 45.57Bn for the FY 21/22 representing a 100.6% achievement.

This was revealed by URSB’s Registrar General Mercy K Kainobwisho while appearing before Parliament’s Legal and Parliamentary affairs committee on Thursday to discuss the agency’s Ministerial Policy statement for fiscal year 2022/23.

The Registrar General attributed the growth in collections to continuous service delivery improvement, automation of registration processes, zero tolerance to corruption and a keen focus on good governance and leadership.

Key achievements included legal and policy reforms, National IP Policy implementation, automation of registration processes such as online filing of annual returns, online marriage registration system, progress in use of security interest and the operationalization of regional offices in major districts such as Mbale, Arua, Gulu, Mbarara and Masaka.

The Registrar General also listed some unfunded priorities for FY 21/22 that hindered the Bureau’s operations which included the furnishing of the Uganda Business Facilitation Centre(UBFC), rent arrears, payment for maintenance of the URSB online platforms, operationalization of 2 regional offices in the Albertine region and Eastern Uganda and mass business registration project.

The Chairperson of the Committee and MP Gomba West Hon. Robinah Rwakojo commended URSB for the continued good performance and pledged the committee’s support to ensure NTR collections grow further.

Hon. Wilfred Nuwagaba MP Ndorwa East and Member of the Committee appealed to URSB to explore modalities of working with SACCOs in order to increase uptake of the Security Interest in Movable Property registry system that will increase access to credit by ordinary citizens.

URSB registered 14,295 new companies, 19,141 business names, 39 414 debentures, 3,364 security interest notices, 4,022 marriage returns, 505 customary marriages and 1,976 local trademarks among others.