It s budget day, and the ministry of finance is delivering the estimates of revenues and expenditure of Government for the financial year 2019/2020. The UGX 40.5 trillion budget is likely to see the tax on a number of items, especially imports, rise with the government prioritizing the purchase and use of domestically made products.
As per the policy, the ministry is charged with the responsibility of detailing how much the budget will impact on various sectors of the country’s economy, as well as where the money to fund it will come from. On the latter, it is estimated that a normal phone user in Uganda will have a significant contribution to make in the next fiscal year, with close to UGX 897.72 billion expected to be collected.
According to the Daily Monitor, government plans on reaping big from charges off phone calls made, both locally and internationally. It is anticipated that a total of UGX 572.09 billion will be collected from the calls made within Uganda and an additional UGX 28.26 billion from those to international locations.
The infamous OTT tax is expected to bring in about UGX 51.27 billion off social media users who find much more need to access the service without defaulting. This includes members of Parliament who recently contracted MTN Uganda to provide monthly Over The Top (OTT) Tax worth 6000 for each.
The other noteworthy contribution will be from the mobile money tax, which was reduced to 0.5 per cent off withdraws, with over UGX 246 billion expected to be collected in the next financial year by URA. The quarterly report from Uganda Communications commission for July to September 2018 indicated a 5% growth in the number of mobile money subscriptions.
Similarly, data from Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) for the first half of the 2018/19 financial year indicates that the body collected over UGX 104.75 billion from mobile money tax for the period running from July to December 2018. The set target had been UGX 54.75 billion, implying that the body registered a surplus of close to UGX 50 billion.
