URA TALKING POINTS AT THE TAKEOVER CEREMONY OF W.B.

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LIMITED
The Chairman Spear Group and WBS TV, Prof. Gordon Wavamunno,
Management of WBS ltd, URA staff, members of the press and all
protocol observed.
Let me take this opportunity to thank Prof. Wavamunno for hosting us
here today for this monumental event, where, as you have heard from
the Professors speech, we are marking the beginning of a new journey
that will not only facilitate seamless collection of the outstanding tax
arrears, but also work towards the corporate rescue of WBS Tv from the
financial challenges it is currently facing.
As you are all aware, the core mandate of the Uganda Revenue Authority
as provided under the URA Act and the respective tax laws is to assess
and collect of taxes for and on behalf of the government of Uganda.
We approach our work from mainly the angle of voluntary compliance by
which we encourage and facilitate taxpayers to willingly declare and pay
their taxes.
And as Professor has noted, WBS Ltd has been operating since 1997,
and throughout these years, it has employed many people from whom a
lot of money has been collected and paid to the government. We have
also collected a lot of VAT from WBS Ltds client.
We are indeed grateful for the taxes WBS has paid all these years.
It is however unfortunate that in the last couple of years, WBS Ltd has
had some management problems. This, in our considered view, is the
main reason why we are here today. The management of WBS has in the
last couple of years failed to properly account for the taxes payable by
the company, hence the current debt.
We are however grateful that unlike many other tax payers, who, after
facing such challenges choose to run away from URA and leave us with
no option but to deploy the stick to force them to pay their taxes, for
WBS, this has not been the case.

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We have decided, together with WBS, to place the operations of the
Company into Administrative Receivership as a measure towards
collecting the outstanding arrears.
Placing a creditor into Receivership is one of the modern methods of
enforcing collection of debts, through which a creditor, authorizes the
debtor to appoint an independent professional, mostly Lawyers and
Accountants, to take over the management of the business for such a
period as the circumstances of the case may require. The Receiver is
given mandate to appraise the business operations, and collect funds out
of its operations to settle the debt, or if the business is found not to be
capable of making any money, the Receiver is empowered to sell the
assets to clear the debt.
Together with the management of WBS, Uganda Revenue Authority has
decided to appoint Mr. KABIITO KARAMAGI and JOSHUA OGWAL to be
the joint Administrative Receivers of WBS Ltd.
We are optimistic that the Receivers will exercise their mandate in a
professional way, and that this process will result into mutual benefits to
both URA and WBS.
We would like to assure the management, staff and clients of WBS ltd
that the Administrative Receivers shall exercise their powers without
compromising the values and quality of WBS Ltd.
We pledge to closely supervise the Receivers such that this process
achieves its desired objective- collection of the outstanding taxes in a
manner that promotes corporate rescue of WBS LTD- where quality
matters.
Lastly, we wish to call upon all stakeholders to receive this news with a
positive mind and continue supporting the business growth of WBS Tv
such that we can together turn it around as we strive to Develop Uganda
Together.