Civil Society Are Demanding For Urgent Guidelines On Tax Waivers

Posted by: lukwago J in Economy May 22, 2019

Civil Society fraternity are demanding for urgent guidelines on tax waiver offered to private companies by government.

They argued that current system and procedures implemented by government is too weak to prevent loss of tax payer’s money.

“We demand for transparent and accountable guidelines to handle tax waivers. The current system being implemented by government organs is not clear,” Julius Mukunda National Coordinator of Civil Society Budget Advocacy Group said during the media briefing.

Jane Nalunga Country Director of Southern and Eastern African Trade Information and Negotiation Institute (SEATINI) noted that by waiving taxes amounting to shs500bilion, Uganda Revenue Authority will fail to hit its revenue target set at 16trillion.

“The shs500billion inform of tax loss means government will have to increasingly rely on debt which currently stands at 41.51 trillion as per June 30th 2018,”Nalunga reasoned.

Cissy Kagaba however says waiving taxes from private companies will put much pressure to individuals to offset the taxes from investors.

“We are likely to see more taxes increased by government and individuals pay more for instance paying OTT tax for members of parliament to off set the loss,”Kagaba noted. She said Uganda presently lacks guidelines on tax incentives, exemption and tax holidays.

This year, parliament while enacting tax procedures code amendment bill 2019, wrote off shs500bilion in taxes for selected private companies namely shs20billion from Steel and Tubes, shs 57billion from Cipla Quality Chemicals, shs3billion from Aya Investments and 86.8billion from Southern Range Nyanza.

In May 2017,77.2billion of tax payers money was not received by Uganda Revenue Authority especially from seven companies on tax waiver direction from finance minister.

The Civil Society Budget Advocacy Group is a Ugandan nonprofit organization that was founded in 2004 to bring together Civil Society Organizations at national and district levels with the view of influencing government decisions on resource mobilization and utilization for equitable and sustainable development

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