A total of UGX 1.5 trillion is tied up in tax disputes, with the Office of the Auditor General (OAG) describing the handling of cases by the Tax Appeals Tribunal (TAT) as “very slow,” a situation that is limiting the circulation of funds needed to sustain private sector activities.

The TAT, a quasi-judicial body established under the Tax Appeals Tribunal Act, 1997, is mandated to resolve tax disputes between taxpayers and the Uganda Revenue Authority.

Section 20(3) of the Act provides that decisions on review applications should be made as soon as practicable after hearings and communicated to all parties.

However, the 2025 Auditor General’s report indicates that the tribunal is grappling with a rapidly growing backlog of high-value cases due to weak case disposal capacity, prolonged delays, and limited public awareness of its mandate.

On average, tax disputes take 10 months to be resolved. The number of pending cases has surged from 169 in the 2022/23 financial year to 476 in 2024/25.

The report reveals that two cases valued at UGX 6.46 billion and UGX 10.3 billion have remained unresolved for more than 50 months.

Additionally, 27 cases worth UGX 33 billion have been pending for between 30 and 40 months.

Cases unresolved for 20–30 months total 30, with a combined value of UGX 201.6 billion, while 119 cases pending for 10–20 months are valued at UGX 442.5 billion.

Auditor General Edward Akol attributed the growing backlog partly to insufficient funding.

Despite the increase in TAT membership from five to nine members in 2022, he noted that the tribunal’s budget has remained static at UGX 7.7 billion—an amount he described as inadequate to support its expanding workload.

END