The Uganda People’s Congress opposition political party wants government to renew it’s principles of taxation.
UPC says government earlier on through the Ministry of Finance announced the proposal indicating a number of taxes ranging from rental tax which was increased to 30%, 12% tax on each litre of locally produced non alcoholic drinks and taxes on data.
They add that the Government is also proposing to amend the Fish Act by introducing an export levy of Shs 70,000 per kilogram of fish maw,the Tobacco control act to be amended to tax of $0.8 (Shs3,000) cuffed on a kilogram of leaf Tobacco among other taxes.
UPC says some of these taxes are not encouraging business activities as they are not just fair and affordable given the current circumstances.
Government should avoid double taxation and be aiming at least reducing on taxation in key sectors like agriculture inputs, small scale businesses, private schools and tertiary institutions as well as making the house hold incomes to grow so that the government can collect more revenue as opposed to increasing taxes on the already collapsing business of the common citizen.
UPC says since early last year not only Ugandan economy experienced a lockdown but the entire global economy closed down as well and the recovery is still very much slow and those well resourced countries are giving out recovery grants and loans to their people which will act as stimulant to the recovery.
So if government is to bring in new taxes or to increase taxes they need to be very much conscious of the timing and the recovery rate since Covid 19 pandemic and at this time most parents are striving to take their children back to school and also some workers were laid off and no more hope of being restored to their employment as it has equally collapsed.
