Minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, Matia Kasaija has this afternoon re-tabled the controversial Excise Duty Bill, 2018 that levied 1% tax on all mobile money transactions and Shs200 daily on social media usage.
Kasaija re-tabled the Bill titled “Excise Duty (Amendment) No.2 Bill, 2018” for its 1st reading after it received uproar from the public countrywide forcing government to make a U-turn with President Yoweri Museveni saying that the mobile money tax was erroneously passed and it was supposed to be 0.5% and on only withdrawals, not 1% of all transactions that parliament had passed.
Before presenting the Bill for its 1st reading, apologized to MPs for the statements attributed to him by the media saying he did not mean to say that Parliament passed the taxes in error.
“I did not say in my address to the media that Parliament of Uganda passed the 1% of mobile money tax in error. I want to apologize to this House for what the media misquoted me,” Kasaija said. This was after Speaker Rebecca Kadaga asked Kasaija to apologize to the House.
The Excise Duty (Amendment) Bill, 20l8 was read for the first time on the 3rd April 2Ol8 and referred to the Committee on Finance, Planning and Economic Development in accordance with Rule 118 of the Rules of Procedure of Parliament.
Its object was to amend the Excise Duty Act, 2014, to raise the point of accounting on telecommunication services; to introduce interest for unpaid duty and limit the interest payable to the amount of the unpaid principal tax; to enhance excise duty in respect of certain excisable goods; to amend the excise duty on telecommunications services; and to introduce excise duty on cooking oil and on motorcycles at first registration.