Budaka town council to drag tax defaulters to court

Budaka, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Budaka town council authorities have vowed to drag tax defaulters to court for non-compliance to remit taxes.

The leaders say low revenue collection has crippled service delivery in the town council as they have majorly been depending on revenue from markets, parks, property tax among others.

Grace Mudenya, the town clerk said despite issuing several reminders, the defaulters have resorted to hide and seek games to evade low enforcement teams.

According to Mudenya, this has affected service delivery such as payment of staff emoluments, garbage collection, street lighting, allowances for the councilors and opening of the access roads among others.

For the last one month, the town council authorities have been combing the streets and corridors confiscating properties of defiant vendors and those who had erected illegal structures.

With its quest to resuscitate its activities that have been grinding to a halt, the authorities have prematurely relocated the market which has been in the town center to the new place near the prisons. Rogers Mukose, the town mayor decried that some landlords are asking for compensation for their plots of land.

He defended the relocation of the market saying it is aimed at decongesting the crowded streets and realignment of the stalls in the park, a move that will reduce the likely spread of Covid-19.

The mayor urged local revenue task force team to refrain from highhandedness and extortion of money from the vendors.

*****

URN