URA Telecom Tax Collections Rise 79% to Shs1.59 Tn on Digital Monitoring

KAMPALA — Uganda’s tax collections from telecom services have risen 79% to Shs1.59 trillion over five years as the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) increasingly uses digital technology to verify transactions, improve compliance and curb revenue leakages.

Combined Value Added Tax (VAT) and Local Excise Duty (LED) collections from telecom services, value-added services and mobile money increased from Shs836 billion in FY2019/20 to Shs1.59 trillion in FY2024/25, according to URA data.

That represents an increase of about Shs754 billion, or average annual growth of about 12%, strengthening domestic revenues as Uganda seeks to finance more of its development needs from locally generated resources.

The increase comes with URA’s use of the Telecom Monitoring System (TIMS) and Data Monitoring System (DMS), supplied by technology company Global Voice Group (GVG).

TIMS/DMS have become URA’s primary and most reliable source for validating and reconciling declarations submitted by telecom operators.

Since URA started drawing on the data in FY2020/21, VAT and Local Excise Duty collections from telecom services have risen consistently.

Rather than relying solely on figures declared by telecom operators, TIMS/DMS gives URA independent transaction data that can be compared with tax returns, making it easier to identify discrepancies and possible under-reporting.

The platforms monitor more than five billion telecom-related transactions every month through three main modules — Traffic Monitoring, Airtime Revenue Monitoring and Mobile Money Monitoring.

As of November 2025, TIMS/DMS monitored nine major tax lines for URA.

These include VAT on telecom products and mobile-money fees; excise duty on prepaid and postpaid airtime; excise duty on Value-Added Services; and the 0.09-cent excise duty on incoming international calls.

The systems also monitor excise duty on money transfers and withdrawals, including transactions outside banks, as well as excise duty on internet data, excluding services provided for medical and education purposes.

They additionally monitor withholding tax on commissions from airtime distribution and mobile-money service provision.

The technology has also extended URA’s visibility into Uganda’s betting and gaming industry.

Data analyst Didas Okurut said the growth “demonstrates the potential of technology to strengthen domestic revenue mobilisation by giving tax authorities greater visibility into economic activity.”

He said better transaction data allows URA to “identify revenue gaps, improve forecasting and ensure taxes already provided for under the law are collected.”

For Uganda, he said, stronger collections mean more resources can be directed towards infrastructure and public services while reducing pressure for new taxes and additional borrowing.

GVG developed a dedicated Business Intelligence (BI) tool that allows URA to query betting and gaming collections and payouts made through mobile money.

The tool also captures Pay-TV and other mobile-money merchant payments, allowing tax officials to compare economic activity taking place through digital platforms with revenues declared by businesses.

URA Commissioner General John Rujoki Musinguzi recently said digitisation can expand government’s fiscal space by “plugging tax leakages and improving compliance without necessarily increasing tax rates.”

For Uganda, the 79% rise in telecom tax collections points to a broader shift in revenue mobilisation: using technology and transaction data to collect more of the taxes already due as mobile money, internet services and other economic activities increasingly move onto digital platforms.

Tax compliance specialist Agnes Arinda said the figures point to the importance of improving compliance rather than repeatedly introducing new taxes.

She said digital monitoring “can widen the effective tax base by identifying under-declaration and ensuring businesses conducting taxable transactions pay what is legally due, ultimately increasing the resources available to government for national development.”