KAMPALA, November 18, 2024 — The Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) has formally requested detailed customer data from the National Water and Sewerage Corporation (NWSC), sparking concerns regarding data privacy.
URA said the data would help NWSC in improving tax compliance and expanding the national taxpayer register.
In a letter dated November 5, 2024, addressed to NWSC’s Managing Director, Eng Silver Mugisha, the URA emphasized its mission to identify and register all persons liable to pay taxes under Section 3(1) of the Tax Procedures Code Act Cap 343.
“The purpose of this letter is to request for a data set from July 2021 to date to aid in the identification and registration of persons who have not complied with Section 3(1) of the Tax Procedure Code Act Cap 343, which requires all persons liable to pay tax to apply for registration with URA,” the letter stated.
The requested information includes:
• Full names of customers,
• NWSC customer and meter numbers,
• National Identification Numbers (NINs),
• Contact details (telephone numbers and emails),
• Monthly consumption data from July 2021 to date, including units consumed and amounts paid, and
• Detailed locations of the metered connections, including street names, building names (where applicable), trading centers, villages, parishes, sub-counties, and districts.
The URA invoked Section 49 of the Tax Procedures Code Act Cap 343, which authorizes the tax body to obtain relevant information from third parties to enforce compliance.
“We therefore seek for your support to ensure that all your customers are registered with URA for purposes of complying with their responsibilities imposed under a tax law,” the letter emphasized.
“NWSC is a key player operating and providing water and sewerage services in areas entrusted to it, on a sound commercial and viable basis,” the letter read.
Tax non-compliance remains a significant challenge in Uganda. A study focusing on businesses in Kampala revealed alarmingly high non-compliance rates, with less than 15% of firms found in both tax and business registries annually between 2015 and 2021.
This issue persists even among larger corporate firms, indicating widespread tax evasion across different business sizes. 
Additionally, about one-third (35%) of Ugandan citizens believe that people in their country “often” or “always” avoid paying taxes they owe, marking a 14-percentage-point increase from 2012. 
Data Privacy
However, Ugandans have expressed concern over the use of their private data for tax collection.
“This is pure invasion of privacy,” said Tim Otucu, a businessman in Kampala.
Uganda’s Data Protection and Privacy Act of 2019 provides a legal framework for safeguarding personal data.
The Act emphasizes the protection of individuals’ rights and personal information, regulating processing activities such as collection, storage, and dissemination of personal data. 
NWSC is yet to issue an official response.
However, a senior official speaking off the record confirmed that the corporation had received the letter. “We are currently reviewing the request to determine how best to proceed while adhering to the law,” the official noted.
