Going To Kololo Was Just A Waste Of Time – Thadeus Musoke KACITA Chairperson

Thadeus Musoke the chairperson of Kampala City Traders Association (KACITA) has said that their meeting with President Museveni at Kololo yesterday was simply a waste of time.  This followed a discussion between the President and traders over the Electronic Fiscal Receipting and Invoicing System (EFRIS).

There were different issues that the traders wanted to discuss with the President including the Value Added Tax (VAT). This tax which stands at 18% is an issue they raised saying that it is high. However, Museveni said that he will need further time to study the reasons why these traders claim it’s high. On the issue of EFRIS, he said that it will go ahead as planned. The only win for the traders was that they could use their smartphones to enforce the system and not the 6m shilling machine initially proposed by URA.

According to Thadeus Musoke, they might not have got what they wanted from this meeting but they took a stand. They made it clear to the President that they know what they want. He said that one of their wins was being saved from the penalties by URA. However, his dissatisfaction as well as other traders is over the EFRIS system. He said that when new technology is introduced, it’s a process full of errors.

“We might not have won on some of the issues we presented to the President; however, we have made a statement that we, as traders, know what we want. One thing about EFRIS is that when you introduce new technology, its adoption is a process. We pay a lot of taxes. Traders are suffocated. So many of them are going to be driven out of business. We (traders) had no win at Kololo. We are wondering why we even went there,” he said.