Hmm, our first guess would have been the scrapping off of the Mobile Money tax that has generated a lot of negative criticism from various Ugandan circles but, the government has already backtracked and reversed its decisions, at least with something enticing to go with it. The levy was revised to 0.5% but only on withdrawals while depositing and sending were spared.
Moving on, let us look at other predictions given the year is yet to end and there is a lot to for for.
Bundling of the OTT tax in Airtime Purchases
With Airtime scratch cards shown the exit, e-recharging is the only way to go. However, most of this revolves around Mobile Money that has since 1st July had its own tax burdens. Even though revised, sensitization about this is still lacking and the OTT tax is still here, smiling at most social media users.
Paying for the tax is burdensome so how about bundling it within the airtime purchase? Let us say for the previous UGX 1000 that only gave you 100M, they will give you 80MB and the remaining UGX 200 caters for the OTT tax.
Also, those that wish to browse the web minus the the burden of paying for the tax might still opt to pay say UGX 1000 and maintain the 100MB and so on and so forth.
An uptake in other e-recharge platforms besides mobile money
The scratch cards are about to say goodbye and possible alternatives are ripe for taking. These include POS terminals, payments aggregators etc.
We anticipate these to replace some airtime vendors especially in urban centers.
Telecoms paying OTT tax on behalf of users
Following what other telecom providers like Smile and Roke Telkom have done, we anticipate some if not all the big dogs like MTN, Airtel or Africell to follow suit given the negative sentiment about the whole tax regime.
To win public will, some telcos might have to cough a little more to have the public on their side and use their data services the more. How? Paying for them the damn OTT tax.
Mobile Money alternatives cropping up
Even while we type this, you’ve heard or seen different apps fronting themselves as viable Mobile Money alternatives. Some are even promising zero charges to users which is yet to be proven but nonetheless, we anticipate more of these to crop up in the coming months.
