By Alexander Mackey Okori
There was a lot of excitement among locals when Maaru Sub-County was curved from Rengen Sub-County and operationalised on July 1, 2020.
The excitement among the locals of the young administrative unit was that its creation and operationalisation would create job opportunities and ensure sustainable socio-economic development through improved service delivery.
Though some people have gotten job opportunities in different departments, Maaru Sub-County is struggling to provide good services to the locals due to low revenue collection.
Paska Angom, the acting Senior Assistant Secretary (SAS) Maaru Sub-County said that for the last five years, the sub-county facing an uphill task to raise adequate revenue locally without banking hopes on the central government grants that sometimes are disbursed late with conditions attached.
She explained that the sub-county had projected to collect Shs 10 million this financial year 2026/2027, however with less than six months left to close the year, only Shs 1.5 has so far been realised.
This means that the district is faced with an uphill task to raise Shs 9.5 within the remaining period before the running financial year ends on June 31, 2026,” said Angom.
According to Angom, low revenue collection is negatively impacting efficient and effective service delivery in the sub-county as they are not able to implement activities that are funded using local revenue.
“Currently 90 percent of the sub-county’s activities are funded by the central government because the district has a low tax base,” she said.
Services affected by low revenue mobilisation include opening of community access, borehole maintenance, and payment of utility bills like water and power.
Paul Adia, the LCIII chairperson Maaru Sub-County blamed low revenue collections in the sub-county on factors such as a narrow tax base, poor attitude of the taxpayers.
Other factors include low uptake of digitalised revenue collection techniques, and limited funding for implementation of local revenue enhancement activities, among others.
Adia said the sub-county currently depends on trade licenses, property tax, and registration of birth and death certificates among others as some of the major sources of revenue.
To curb the problem of low revenue base, Adia said the sub-county plans open a weekly market as well as sensitize the business community on importance of paying taxes.
Adia told this publication that they have begun sensitising locals on revenue mobilisation and countering negative statements made by some politicians.
On the other hand, he urged the business community to pay taxes if they are to get good services from the district.
“If people meet their obligations of paying tax, the sub-county will be able to finance its planned activities for the 2026/2027 financial year,” he said.
The problem of local revenue collection mirrors, a myriad of challenges the sub-counties and town councils created in 2018/2019 financial in Kotido district are faced with.
