Parliament of Uganda passed the Excise Duty Amendment Act, 2018 on 30th May 2018 which provided inter alia for the payment of excise duty amounting to UGX 200 per user per day of access to Over the Top (OTT) services and a 1% excise duty on mobile money transaction value became effective 1st July 2018. We the members of Civil Society have had the opportunity to review the spirit of the Act particularly the impugned provisions 3(b) and 6(g) relating to the social media and mobile money taxes respectively. We would like to reiterate the concerns raised by the citizens on the above taxes as follows:

Parliament of Uganda passed the Excise Duty Amendment Act, 2018 on 30th May 2018 which provided inter alia for the payment of excise duty amounting to UGX 200 per user per day of access to Over the Top (OTT) services on and a 1% excise duty on mobile money transaction value became effective 1st July 2018. We the members of Civil Society1 that are gathered here at AAIU offices in Kampala this Sunday 8th July 2018 have had the opportunity to review the spirit of the Act particularly the impugned provisions 3(b) and 6(g) relating to the social media and mobile money taxes respectively

The Minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development (MoFPED) presented the tax revenue measures for FY 2018/19 contained in the; Income Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2018, Lotteries and Gaming (Amendment Bill, 2018, Excise Duty (Amendment) Bill 2018, Value Added Tax (Amendment) Bill 2018, Tax Procedures codes (Amendment) Bill, 2018, Tax Appeals Tribunal (Amendment) Bill, 2018, Stamp Duty (Amendment) Bill, 2018 and The Traffic and Road Safety Act 1998 (Amendment) Bill, 2018.

We the members of the Tax Justice Alliance including SEATINI 1Uganda, Oxfam, Civil Society Budget Advocacy Group (CSBAG),Uganda Debt Network(UDN), Action Aid Uganda (AAIU), Citizens Watch-Information Technology (CEW-IT), Women and Girl Child Development Association (WEGCDA) and Inter University Tax Justice Forum, that are gathered here at SEATINI Uganda offices in Kampala this 21st April 2017 hereby present our observations and recommendations in respect to the tax measures that were presented to Parliament.