Day

www.mknewslink.com
In Kampala
Just a day after civil society in western Uganda held a protest in Bushenyi, Parliament has passed the Excise Duty (Amendment) Bill, 2018 with amendments approving government proposed tax on Mobile Money transactions, Social Media as well as reducing the tax on Soft Drinks.
Yesterday, civil society activists led by Apollo Kakonge of West Ankole Civil Society Forum, held a press conference, directly opposing tax on Mobile Money. Prior to that, the Managing Director mknewslink.com had petitioned the Parliament opposing the imposition of social media tax.
The parliamentary decision might be deemed a slap in the face of weeks of vigorous pushing by members of public with support from civil society, for government to find alternatives sources of revenue rather than mobile money.
There has been fear from experts that this tax was likely to undo a lot of progress made so far in the country, regarding financial inclusion.
The tax bill was passed after a heated debate that followed a report by the Parliamentary Committee of Finance, which recommended that Parliament passes the proposals tabled by government through the Ministry of Finance.
According to the approved bill, the social media tax, which will be levied on every mobile phone subscriber in Uganda who uses platforms such as WhatsApp, Twitter and Facebook, will amount to Shs200 per day.
Government argued that at the moment, voice and messaging traffic has migrated from conventional voice calls and messaging to voice over the internet and online messaging, through applications like WhatsApp, Skype, yet these services do not attract excise duty, unlike voice calls that attract VAT and excise duty.
The Finance Committee supported the proposal stating that it is unfair and inequitable for consumers who buy airtime and use it to make voice calls compared to those who buy internet data and make voice calls.
The house also approved the proposals by government to have 1% tax slapped on the value of Mobile Money transactions were government intends to collect Shs115billion.
The Committee justified their decision noting that the use of mobile money is an efficiency gain and should be taxed, adding that money has migrated from the traditional payment systems like banks to the digital platforms.
The Leader of Opposition, Winfred Kiiza wondered why Government isn’t slapping more tax on items like cigarettes, beer and alcohol in sachets to make youths more productive, adding that the tax on mobile money is unfair.
State Minister for Planning, David Bahati lashed out at opponents of the bill, saying that tax is a contribution, not a punishment and that the appetite for those demanding good services must be backed by measures to support them.
Meanwhile, the Committee rejected the proposal to impose Excise duty on soft drinks arguing that the current tax is already the highest in the region and further taxation is bound to encourage smuggling of soft drinks from the neighboring countries.

Source: www.mknewslink.com a greater western Uganda news website
Email: wmuhwezi75@gmail.com
Tel: +256702680106

www.mknewslink.com
In Kampala
Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga wants government to import nursery teachers from Cuba, to help Ugandans change their attitude towards vocational education.
Kadaga said that on her recent visit to Cuba, she noticed that three-year-old children play games in chemistry, physics, hairdressing and other vocational skills.
She said that children need to learn vocational skills while at nursery level. “These skills are shortcuts to vocational training, compared to the white collar jobs which are creating unemployment,” she said.
She was speaking at the launch of the SOS children’s villages Youth Can Initiative, at the Kampala Serena Hotel on Wednesday.

Source: www.mknewslink.com a greater western Uganda news website
Email: wmuhwezi75@gmail.com
Tel: +256702680106

By Yosam Gucwaki
www.mknewslink.com
In masindi
The electoral commission Masindi has held the workers elections amid protests from the people whose names were not in the voters register.
The exercise of electing workers representatives to Masindi district council was held yesterday 29th May 2018 at Masindi stadium but many people were left complaining, arguing that most of the genuine unions were left out.
According to Fidel Andama Obiya, the chairperson Uganda National Teachers Union Masindi branch, representatives of workers from unions like UNATU, Masindi local government workers union, Bunyoro growers, Plantation of workers union Kinyara were not in the list.
He added that most of the people who participated in the elections were market vendors, Boda bodas and their wives something he said is unfair to them.
Andama said that they expected the voters register to comprise of120 people from six unions but surprised to find only 71 voters on the register
During the elections, the furious voters confronted the deputy district returning officer, Mirabo Kasande demanding her to explain how the matter happened but she told them to put the matter in writing such that they could be helped.
But this didn’t go well with the voters urging that several attempts had been made to ensure that the issue is rectified in vain. They added that petitioning is not helping them at all since their efforts have been frustrated for long.
The voters accepted to put the matter in writing after she told them that everything is done in Kampala and she could not change anything at that time.
The situation came to normal after the deputy registrar told them that she was going to call the office of the electoral commission in Kampala.
However, Andama added that they have petitioned the electoral commission and they need the elections to be cancelled.

Source: www.mknewslink.com a greater western Uganda news website
Email: wmuhwezi75@gmail.com
Tel: +256702680106