Parliament has passed Excise Duty(Ammendment) Bill 2018 that enables the Govt to levy a 1% tax on each Mobile Money transactions and Social Media users will be charged Ush 200 per day when using Facebook, Snapchat, Whatsapp and Twitter starting july 1st.
This comes as a projection by the government to collect 284 billion Shillings from the measures.It also includes approves of the 200 Shillings levy on every litre of cooking oil, 100 Shillings for every litre of diesel and petrol, 650 Shillings on each litre of Opaque beer, 1500 Shillings per litre on ready to drink spirits and 200 Shillings for every litre of non-alcoholic beverages with the exception of fruit or vegetable juices
During the debate, MPs displayed a sharp division on the tax measures. The Leader of Opposition Winifred Kiiza, Bungokho North MP Gershom Sizomu Wambedde, Bukoto East MP Florence Namayanja, Kassanda County MP Patrick Nsamba Oshabe and several others opposed the 1 percent tax on mobile money transactions saying that it will exclude the majority of Ugandans from financial transactions. Kiiza argued that more taxes should be put on alcohol rather than piling taxes on the vulnerable Ugandans.
However, Some MPs supported the mobile money levy describing it as a service-gain citing the need for Ugandans to have an obligation for paying taxes as they demand services. Others described the opposing of the proposed taxes as lack of patriotism continuing to state that government has no money minting machine and that if Ugandans do not pay taxes, there shall not be services provided.
