EFRIS now reaches twelve sectors, VAT-registered or not

For its first years EFRIS, the Uganda Revenue Authority's Electronic Fiscal Receipting and Invoicing Solution, was something VAT-registered businesses dealt with and everyone else watched from a distance. That changed on 1 July 2025. Under URA General Notice No. 2218 of 2025, twelve sectors must now issue e-invoices and e-receipts whether or not they are registered for VAT. A year on, with the penalty rules rewritten again from 1 July 2026, it is worth being clear about who is caught and what the system actually demands.

Who must use EFRIS

URA's EFRIS page lists two groups. The first is every VAT-registered business. The second is any business, VAT-registered or not, in these twelve sectors:

• Manufacturing
• Mining and quarrying
• Water supply, sewerage and waste management
• Electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply
• Construction
• Transportation and storage (URA currently excludes passenger land transport such as taxis, boda bodas and buses)
• Accommodation and food service activities
• Information and communication technology (excluding non-resident digital service providers)
• Real estate
• Professional, scientific and technical activities
• Arts, entertainment and recreation
• Wholesale and retail of fuel

Any other taxpayer may join voluntarily. A TIN is required before registration. Note that the list covers a small guest house or a neighbourhood restaurant just as it covers a hotel chain: the sector, not the size, is the test.

What the law says and what it costs to ignore

URA cites sections 92 and 93 of the Tax Procedures Code Act Cap 343 as the legal basis. The penalties were revised by the Tax Procedures Code (Amendment) Act, 2026. Both URA's page and EY's summary of the Act state the same rule: failing to use an electronic fiscal device or EFRIS where it is mandatory, or failing to issue an e-invoice or e-receipt, attracts a penal tax equal to double the tax due or ten currency points, whichever is higher. A currency point is UGX 20,000, so the floor is UGX 200,000 per offence. EY notes that this replaced earlier minimums of UGX 8 million and UGX 6 million, so the fixed floor is lower, but the "double the tax due" limb bites harder on a business with real turnover.

There is a second, quieter cost. URA rejects VAT credit claims and income tax expense deductions that are not backed by an e-invoice or e-receipt from a supplier who was required to issue one. If you buy from a builder, a printer or an IT firm and they hand you a handwritten receipt, that expense may be disallowed when you file. Compliance has become a supply-chain matter, and your customers will start asking you for e-receipts for the same reason.

Manual receipts are a narrow exception

URA permits manual receipts only in limited cases, such as a system outage or a device under maintenance, and the transactions must be uploaded to EFRIS within 24 hours. A business that keeps a manual book "for busy days" is not within the exception.

Choosing a channel

URA offers several ways to issue e-receipts, and the right one depends on volume:

• The URA web portal, limited to businesses without a billing system that have fewer than 100 transactions a day and annual sales below UGX 2 billion. It has no offline mode.
• The EFRIS mobile app and the desktop client, both able to work offline for up to five days.
• System-to-system (API) integration for businesses whose point of sale or accounting system issues the invoice directly.
• An Electronic Fiscal Device, which URA says is supplied by Rank Consult at around UGX 1.1 million and is an allowable expense.

For a shop or restaurant with a till, system-to-system integration is the option that does not add a second step at the counter: the receipt the customer sees is the fiscal receipt.

What to do this quarter

1. Check whether your business falls in one of the twelve sectors. Accommodation and food service, construction, ICT and professional services cover far more small businesses than most owners assume.
2. If you are caught and not yet on EFRIS, register on the URA portal with your TIN and pick a channel you can live with every day.
3. Ask your own suppliers in those sectors for e-receipts, and keep them. Your deductions depend on it.
4. Write down your outage procedure: who issues the manual receipt, and who uploads it within 24 hours.

The Daily Monitor's reporting on the 2026 amendments noted that traders' groups still argue the penalties ignore the realities of small trade, and that debate will continue. The obligation, however, is already in force, and the easiest way to carry it is to make the fiscal receipt the only receipt your business prints.

Sources

1. https://www.ura.go.ug/en/efris/
2. https://www.ceo.co.ug/ura-expands-efris-compliance-to-12-new-sectors-in-sweeping-tax-digitisation-move/
3. https://www.monitor.co.ug/uganda/business/prosper/businesses-face-tougher-penalties-over-efris-5438906
4. https://www.ey.com/en_gl/technical/tax-alerts/uganda-issues-tax-amendment-acts-for-2026