Fiery ex army commander Maj. Gen. (RTD) Mugisha Muntu has lashed at government officials saying the taxes will simply not solve the country’s GDP deficit but rather increase corruption.
The Opposition strong man addressed his concern on Thursday through his Twitter page, hours after President Yoweri Museveni used the same platform to defend the new taxes levied on mobile money and social media.
To Muntu, it is sheer ignorance thinking that the new taxes will solve Uganda’s problems but rather intensify the corruption tendencies.
“When a country’s ranked 24/174 most corrupt nations, asking the same corrupt system to collect more taxes simply translates into increased theft. Fix that first before demanding more from the people,” he posted on his twitter page.
On comments that Ugandans don’t want to pay taxes, Gen Muntu said that in the Financial Year 2016/17 Uganda Revenue Authority (URA), collected Shs12.7trillion in taxes. It was up by 1.4trillion in 2015/16.
“That’s in spite of govt corruption, misappropriation of funds and outright theft,” Muntu said adding Ugandans pay taxes in spite of not receiving commensurate services from government.
Beginning July 1 2018, Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) through various media outlets announced plans to effect the two new taxes on mobile money and social media.
But government has since been widely criticized by the public saying it’s not certain.
This prompted the President, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni to clarify that the tax on mobile money is 0.5% as opposed to 1%.
However, he didn’t change position on social media tax saying it is a luxury and most of the times used to spread malicious information.