The Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Jacob Oulanyah had earlier defended the social media tax by claiming that the tax is not expensive at all for an average Ugandan.
Oulanya was speaking at the launch of the second quarterly report to access the rule of law in Uganda by the Uganda Law Society today in Kampala.
He has said there is no need for Ugandans to be up in arms over the new taxes because they are considerably small yet there are demands for good roads and well-stocked health centres.
The speaker urged Ugandans to pay these taxes he considers as small in order to support government plans of providing services without relying on donor aid.
In contrast, the Opposition Whip in Parliament Ibrahim Semujju has blamed the social media tax on poor development policies that ignored investment in productive sectors like Agriculture and tourism.
He says Uganda is a heavily indebted economy with no expenditure income where nearly half the budget is spent on interest and debt payment.
Semujju was commenting on the petition lodged yesterday by a group of concerned citizens calling on court to declare the social media tax unconstitutional.
He says the government is broke and warns that even if the social media tax is scrapped by the courts the state will come up with more repressive taxes.
