WEST NILE: URA Extends Motorcycle Registration Promotion to June Next Year
ARUA. The Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) leadership has considered the continued cry of the people of West Nile to extend the motorcycle registration promotion exercise.
In February this year, the State Minister of Finance in charge of General Duties, Henry Musasizi in consultation with John Musinguzi, the URA Commissioner General announced a six-month promotional registration of numberless motorcycles in the West Nile sub-region.
The promotion came with a tax cut on motorcycle registration from over shs1m to about shs800,000 per motorcycle. The exercise was later extended for another three months which were to expire at the end of this month.
But before the expiry of the ultimatum, Boda Boda, business and local leaders have been appealing to URA to consider extending the promotion period to give people more time to register their motorcycles.
As a result, Abel Kagumire, the URA Commissioner in charge of Executive Operations, reported to stakeholders during a meeting at Tropical Suites in Arua City on Tuesday, October 29, 2024, that the Commissioner General has once again extended the motorcycle registration promotion for the people of West Nile to June 30, 2025.
“So, in a wide consultation with the Board and the Minister, the Commissioner General has allowed the extension of motorcycle registration promotion up to 30th June, 2025,” Kagumire said, attracting a loud applause from the audience.
He, however, tasked the local leaders in the region to encourage the public to take advantage of the extension so as to have their motorcycles registered.
On behalf of the business fraternity, Moses Obeta, the Arua business community chairperson, welcomed the move by URA and promised to mobilize people to embrace the promotion.
“There are some people who have started paying for motorcycle number plates, others are yet to start but getting this money isn’t easy. I’m now so happy and optimistic that this new extension will enable people to register their motorcycles. I want to thank URA very much for listening to the cry of the people,” Obeta said.
But Obeta said if the period given expires without some people registering their motorcycles, nobody should blame URA when they swing into action to start impounding such bikes.
Jackson Atima Lee Buti, the Arua Central Division Member of Parliament (MP), said he had earlier requested the URA Commissioner General to extend the promotion up to the end of the financial year.
“I’m happy that the Commissioner General has listened to my request because extending the promotion to the end of December this year was such a short period of time for people who would like to clear their motorcycles. Now that we have enough time till the end of June next year, I want to appeal to my people of West Nile to use this opportunity maximumly,” Atima said.
Sadik Angupale Alemi, the Arua Deputy Resident City Commissioner (RCC) in charge of the Central Division, also commended URA for giving the people of West Nile another chance to register their motorcycles.
He said as a government, they are going to fully support URA by mobilizing the locals to take advantage of the promotion.
Speaking to journalists over the weekend, Frank Abaho, the Acting Manager Northern Region Customs Enforcement, noted that they were able to collect shs2.7bn during the promotion.
“We managed to collect around Shs2.7bn in that promotion and we registered 4,386 motorcycles. But we are still noticing that there are some motorcycles which are not registered on the streets,” Abaho stated.
Such a sympathetic action by the URA officials upon this region so the ball is now in our caught to fight left and right, up and down to take this into action