Social media being amongst the top items teased by Government as viable tax avenues irked many especially the online community. These didn’t welcome the idea of paying a daily fee for accessing the initially free social media platforms. As many platforms like Facebook, Whatsapp and Twitter are free to use and download for smartphones so long as one has an active data subscription.
The government clearly focuses on earning a penny from their daily usage even though users have come out to comment on the taxing strategy. The latest to come out is that UCC has notified local television stations to tax users who stream their feed live via smartphone apps and online platforms like YouTube.
According to the Morning at NTV show, TV apps will soon be taxed as well in accordance to the law similar to the said Social media tax. However, this implies that subscribers can either watch live TV using the already taxed Decoders or pay subscription fees in order to catch their favorite show anytime on YouTube or official station apps.
Sympathizing with the whole taxing situation, experts claim online media tax will hinder innovation and Fintech growth in the country. Nevertheless, paying to access Facebook or Instagram or Twitter is as good as banning social media usage in the country since many ordinary users still browse using the old Zero Facebook directory and all they wish to access is a few snippets of the latest feed trending on the internet.
Therefore, with blazing opposition from the Ugandan online fraternity. Online media taxing may either rave with relatively low annual costs or scrapped off by Government.
