The planned adoption of the National Identification Number (NIN) as the primary tax identification number for individuals will expand Uganda’s tax base, eliminate duplicate registrations and improve tax administration, the Minister of State for Finance, Planning and Economic Development (Planning), Hon. Amos Lugoloobi, has said.
The Minister said the reform is intended to establish a reliable and unified system for identifying individual taxpayers.
“The broader objective is not simply to replace one number with another, but to improve the integrity of taxpayer identification, broaden the tax base and strengthen domestic revenue mobilisation,” said Lugoloobi, who presented a statement on the integration during the House sitting on Thursday, 15 October 2026.
Speaker Jacob Marksons Oboth presided over the sitting.
Lugoloobi noted that currently Uganda has 5.7 million registered taxpayers, of whom 5.4 million are individuals. However only 3.3 million are active while about 2.1 million remain inactive.
With the transfer, Lugoloobi said, government estimates that activating more taxpayers could generate significant revenue.
“The Shs420 billion is an indicative illustration of the potential revenue that could be mobilised if eligible persons comply with their tax obligations. It is not a tax imposed on every person who possesses a NIN,” he said.
He said that separate TIN and NIN systems had created duplicate records, inconsistencies and opportunities for taxpayers to appear under different particulars. In the 2025/26 financial year URA identified 191,813 duplicate records and 51,993 mutations in its taxpayer register.
Government has made progress in the integration, Lugoloobi said, adding that by 30 September 2026, a total of 2,130,814 of the 5,405,148 individual taxpayer records representing 39 per cent had been matched with NINs.
The minister explained that the although the project targets individual taxpayers, non-individual taxpayers, including companies and registered organisations, will use the Entity Registration Number issued by the Uganda Registration Services Bureau subject to the necessary approvals.
Foreign taxpayers will use applicable identification including Alien Identification Numbers, while diplomats will use numbers issued through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Separate arrangements will be developed for refugees.
The Leader of the Opposition, Hon. Joel Ssenyonyi, however questioned how the transition would accommodate Ugandans who are not registered with the National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA).
“About 10.4 million Ugandans are not registered by NIRA, so there is a lacuna during the migration because they do not exist in the system. How will you address that?” Ssenyonyi asked.
He also challenged the anticipated increase in revenue, noting that most registered taxpayers remain inactive. “Sixty per cent of the people on the tax register are inactive, so the claim that tax inflows will increase is not necessarily true. We would want to know the plans around those who are inactive,” he said.
Ssenyonyi further raised privacy concerns, citing Section 29 of the Data Protection and Privacy Act, which requires entities collecting and processing personal data to register with the National Information Technology Authority–Uganda.
Ndorwa County West MP, Hon. Eliab Naturinda supported the reform citing similar transitions in other countries. “Ghana transitioned in 2021 and Rwanda transitioned effective 2025. Government spent money on benchmarking and sent staff and even MPs to those countries. We should now implement,” Naturinda said.
Rukiga County MP, Hon. Patrick Katabaazi said adopting a uniform taxpayer identity was positive but called for stronger systems at NIRA, which has low staffing resulting into about 5.6 million uncollected national identity cards.
