What happens if you find a working formula? My advise, don’t change it. However, you could simply improve it to better suit your needs. That’s exactly what Zambia has done. The benefits Uganda rips from OTT Tax since its introduction on July 1st could have tempted Zambia. The south-central African country will soon tax its citizens for using internet phone calls.
In March 2018, President Museveni expressed the lack of seriousness by the ministry and tax body to identify viable tax sources that could generate revenue to the government and offset borrowing and dependency on aid. This was in the leaked letter dated March 12th, 2018.
The President named three areas that the Finance Ministry and tax agency missed. These included not taxing voice conversations and non-educational communications on OTT channels. Were other governments watching? Maybe they came to realization after Uganda enforced OTT Tax.
Zambia Government to Tax Internet phone calls.
The Zambian government will introduce a tax on internet phone calls in a bid to protect the traditional service providers. And raise government revenue, of course. The Information Minister Dora Siliya said the cabinet had approved an executive order that would see the introduction of a 30 ngwee (0.3 kwacha; $0.03) daily tariff charged on online phone calls.
This is slightly lower than Uganda’s $0.05 levy. Maybe because Zambia’s levy focuses on internet phone calls, not the entire feature catalog offered by the likes of Whatsapp. Just like in Uganda, Zambia will charge the tax through telecom operators and internet providers.
“Cabinet has noted that there is an increase in the use of internet phone calls at the expense of traditional phone calls and this threatens the telecommunications industry and jobs in companies such as Zamtel, Bharti Airtel and MTN Zambia,” said Ms Siliya.
According to Ms Siliya, 80% of Zambians use WhatsApp, Skype and Viber to make phone calls. This endangers the survival of traditional telecoms who thrive on call and data revenues.
Further revising Uganda’s books, Zambia’s cabinet also approved the proposal to introduce tough new cyber crime laws to regulate social media use, curb hate speech, fight cyber-crime and pornography. All those are already in place here. Maybe they will have their own version of Mobile Money tax soon.
