The Military Police in Uganda is still busy blocking Dr Besigye 9 months after  the Uganda General elections:

Dr Besigye using a Boda Boda  motorcycle as a get away from the determined Military Police of Uganda.  He has been stopped from using his car.

By Serestino Tusingwire,

 

21 November, 2016

The former Forum for Democratic Change presidential Candidate, Dr. Kizza Besigye has been seen in another rare moment this afternoon when he too walked for some distance before getting a boda boda which he used to travel to town for a meeting.

It is alleged that Police blocked his car as he was trying to leave his home in Kasangati for a certain meeting in Kampala, and this prompted him to abandon the car and use his feet leaving the empty car in the hands of police.

 

Government printer lies neglected. The old colonial building  is in ruins at Entebbe as street publishers flourish:

Here is Joseph Kaggwa, the production manager at the Uganda Printing and Publishing Corporation.

 

The printing press is covered in dust, a clear sign that the machine has not been used in a long time. Kaggwa blames the flourishing street publishers for knocking UPPC out of business.

 

By Paul Tajuba

 

Posted  Monday, March 9  2015

 

Uganda Printing and Publishing Corporation (UPPC) is stationed at Entebbe.

The Entebbe based government publishing house has no business running and the dust baked machines have become a place of abode for cockroaches and ants.

The wooden doors have seen better days as they have now become food for termites.

These are features that stand out when you go to UPPC. When the publishing house gets some business, the staff there works tirelessly to ensure that the out of use machines do not disappoint.

Back in the day

The Government Printer, as it was called before it became UPPC in 1993, had its glorious days though mainly during the colonial days, Obote and Amin regimes.

At the time, the agency was authorised to disseminate information to different government departments and ministries. Through this avenue, duplications and forgeries were minimised.

The printer also dealt in the printing and publishing of newspapers both in English and local languages, the Uganda Gazette, land titles, scholastic materials and envelopes.

Those who worked at the corporation during the golden days have a message of dire straits - asking government to intervene.

How things got out of hand

Joseph Kaggwa-Mubuya, the UPPC production manager has worked at the corporation for nearly 30 years. He says the troubles of the printer started in 1993 when the agency was turned into a corporation but was never given funding.

According to the 1992 UPPC Act, government is mandated to give UPPC money for its operations but the Act is silent on how much government should submit.

Subsequently, UPPC, though under the office for Presidency, has never received money that could have been used to purchase modern printing machines.

Actually, the “newest” machine at the agency was imported in 1991.

In the 1990s when liberalisation of the economy was at its peak, the printing school at the agency collapsed.

“You cannot trace the history of printing in Uganda from UPPC. It used to be the skills centre where even staff would go abroad to enhance their skills but that is gone,” Kaggwa –Mubuya sadly states.

Gud Mbareba, the printing finishing superviser at the agency says the final blow that UPPC got was in 1996 when there was massive staff retrenchment.

He says, “some of the most experienced people were laid off thus the school had to collapse.”

Rebirth

Some of the axed staff found solace at Nasser Road and it was not long before the groupo had established a printing and publishing empire at the strategically located area.

“All those who first owned printers on Nasser Road are former employees of UPPC because they had the expertise and money to buy modern machines. Now UPPC can’t compete with them” Mbareba says.

While Nasser Road is booming with publishing work, at UPPC silence reigns supreme with the machines lying idle.

 

 

 

Government asks for an extra Shs800 billion: 

Mr Matia Kasaija

 

By Yasiin Mugerwa

 

Posted  Monday, 9 March, 2015 

 

IN SUMMARY

In the supplementary request, government would, for instance, spend Shs3 billion on workshops and seminars alone and another Shs4.1 billion on travel expenses.

 

Uganda Parliament-Wasteful budget requests such as special meals, welfare, workshops, foreign trips and allowances as highlighted in the new government supplementary request have kicked off a fuss in a new budget dispute over the request for an extra Shs800 billion the government urgently needs to cater for “unforeseen emergencies”.

The new request, if approved by Parliament, will increase the 2014/2015 budget from Shs15 trillion to about Shs16 trillion amid complaints that the money is going into consumptive areas.

In the supplementary request, government would, for instance, spend Shs3 billion on workshops and seminars alone and another Shs4.1 billion on travel expenses.

Opposition members have, however, criticised the latest cash request as “a political supplementary request” intended to help the ruling party raise cash to finance its campaigns.

“This supplementary request is suspect. What has been paraded as money for travel abroad, workshops and seminars could be money for campaigns,” said Mr Gerald Karuhanga (Youth Western).

The Budget Committee is expected to convene later this week to start scrutinising Mr Matia Kasaija’s maiden cash request as Finance minister designate.

The rising figures

Even before his swearing-in, Mr Kasaija last week requested for Shs847.2b up from the Shs237 billion requested in 2013/14 financial year.

As a rule, supplementary budgets should be a result of unforeseen actions such as natural disasters. However, in some instances, ministries have asked for more funds in the course of a financial year to deal with recurrent costs such as salaries.

Explaining what looks like a policy-reversal on wastage, ministry of Finance spokesperson Jim Mugunga said: “As a policy, there was an across-the-board hold on non-core international travels and workshops. This was meant to manage available resources then. It does not necessarily make workshops and travel unnecessary in functions of government.”

Deputy NRM spokesperson Ofwono Opondo said the NRM party does not get campaign cash from the Treasury and described Opposition accusations as “cheap political games”.

ymugerwa@ug.

nationmedia.

com

 

 

Political Parties in Uganda reject the  EC use of national ID register as NRM government prepares another rigged national election for 2016:

Gen David Sejusa (R) with the vice chairperson of People’s Progressive Party (PPP) Dick Odur (2nd R) address the press at PPP offices in Ntinda yesterday.

PHOTO BY ABUBAKER LUBOWA

By Winnie Tabitha & Albert Tumwine

 

Posted  Wednesday, April 29   2015

 

Kampala,Uganda, The Opposition has rejected a move by the Electoral Commission (EC) to use data collected during the compilation of the national identification registration exercise to update the national voters’ register ahead of the 2016 general elections.

Speaking at separate events, various political party leaders said the national ID registration exercise was full of errors and as a result, most Ugandans were not registered.

Addressing a news conference at the DP party headquarters in Kampala yesterday, the party spokesperson, Mr Kenneth Kakande, said: “Many people on the national register did not register for the national IDs and that means if the EC uses the ID project register, many Ugandans are going to be disenfranchised,” Mr Kakande said.

Addressing journalists during the party’s weekly press conference on Monday, Forum for Democratic Change spokesperson John Kikonyogo expressed dismay at the way EC is handling the entire exercise.

“We have failed to get an explanation from the EC on why the old register was discarded and we want them to tell us how those people they are adding to the list applied,” Mr Kikonyogo said.

Democratic Party (DP) secretary general Mathias Nsubuga said the EC should use the previous register. He claimed the Opposition has evidence to the effect that more than 3,000 people appearing on national ID register are not Ugandans.

Uganda Media Centre executive director Ofwono Opondo, however, defended the EC, stressing that whatever is being done is within the law.

EC spokesperson Jotham Taremwa, said the government made the decision that all government departments should use the collected national voters’ data banks for future purposes.

Meanwhile, former coordinator of intelligence services, Gen David Sejusa has said there is no point in going for an election that will be “stolen”.

Mr Sejusa said the criteria of registering voters did not put into consideration verification of citizens.

“You were all registered, but what system was used to establish that you are a citizen of this country? How many of you were asked for a birth certificate, none!” Mr Sejusa said.

Article 61 (e) of the 1995 Constitution mandates the Electoral Commission to compile, maintain, revise and update the national voters register (the same is repeated under the EC Act Section 18).

But Parliament this year passed the Registration of Persons Bill that establishes a national identification register of all persons in Uganda and provides for access and use of the information contained in the national identification register.

editorial@ug.

nationmedia.

com

 

 

Ekibiina kyobufuzi ekya Kabaka Yekka, UPC y’ Obote Ekiwera:

Obote yekyusiza abaamutuusa!

 

 

Mu mwaka 1965, Omubaka we kibiina kya KY Daudi Ocheng, yayisa ekiteeso kunsonga yokukusa zaabu we Congo namasanga g’enjovu, okubitunda munsi zebweru.

 

Dr Obote, nga Prime Minister, ne Minister Nekyon muganda wa Obote ne Onama Minister wa Defence bebatekebwa ko olunnwe nga bwebenyigira mulukwe luno.

Era Ocheng yaleeta ekiteeso ekirala, Colonel Amin okugira ng’awummuzibwako weeks bbiri nga Gavumenti bw’ebuuliriza.

 

Gwo omukago gwebyobufuzi wakati we kibiina kyo bufuzi ekya KY ne kibiina kyo bufuzi ekya UPC gwafiira ddala mu September 1964. Era 1965 gugenda okutuuka nga bangi ababaka ba UPC mu National Assembly (Parliament) bateesa kulaba nga bawera ekibiina kya Kabaka Yekka. Baakiyita kya bakyewaggula abatagoberera mateeka era abaagala okutabulatabula eddembe mu Uganda.

Abantu bangi baali bakwatiddwa era nga bali mu nkomyo na ddala e Luzira.

Obote yatekawo akakiiko kabulirize ku bya zaabu n’amasanga era abantu bangi ko baawa obujulirwa mu kakiiko ako, ebyama bingi ku kufuna n’okutunda zaabu n’amasanga ne bibikkulwa.

Naye report y’akakiiko bwe yaggwa Obote teyagifulumya! Parliement ye, Cabinet ye nabawagizi bangi aba UPC nebamuggyamu obwesige.

 

Yali asigazza kwesiga b’amagye bokka. Okuyimiriza Col. Amin yakigaana nakuza Amin mukifo kya Brigadier Opoloto. Mukuteesa kwa Cabinet okwaddako Obote yagenda kukwatta ba Minister be batano nabasibira e Luzira Criminal Prison.

 

 

 

 

 The British Judge Allen

 

P J Allen and his judiciary at the time demonstrate the high quality of the judiciary at the time.
 
Judge Allen and Judge Manyindo presided over  the trials of most of the Amin era criminals. A majority of these criminals hired the best lawyers available in Uganda at the time, which invariably was Ayigihugu. Some like Abdallah Nasur were convicted but a good number were acquitted because of lack of direct evidence. Others like Edward Mulindwa even managed to lie low for a while before escaping to foreign lands.

 

 

 I hope your mate WBK does not judge those of us who participated in prosecuting these Amin era criminals as failures, in the same manner that he has judged the ICC prosecutors. Prosecutors are supposed to present the facts before the courts that can convince a court that an accused is quilty. In this, it has to work very closely with the Investigatory authorities, namely the police and law enforcement. In the case of the Amin criminals, the police did not give us enough information from their investigations that would allow a conviction to be  upheld.
It was particulalrly disappointing in the case of Bob Astles in whose case, the judge found he was always around the major killings we charged him with, especially the murders of Archbishop Luwum and Minister's Erinayo Oryema and Oboth-Ofumbi, but we could not connect him directly to the killings. With advance in DNA science these days and coupled with Edward Mulindwa's recent confessions about complicity in the murders, I think a good prosecutor would today nail Edward Mulindwa without doubt. What WBK does not understand, from your debates which I have followed,  is that the ICC prosecutors can only be good as the investigations put before it. The Satatute of the ICC puts a duty on Satte Authorities to cooperate with the ICC in investigating cases referred to it. if a state refuses, objects or even thwarts the invesigations, the direct result is that the Presecutors will not have serficient evidence to obtain a conviction. So Mensouda and her team have so far failed in their prosecution of Jomo Kenyatta, but this is because of the failure of GoK to cooperate in investigations. It is not because Mensouda and her team are bad lawyers as WBK keeps asserting. In fact the evidnce that they had gathered against Jomo Kenyatta was so compelling that any prosecutor would make a decision to prosecute. But faced with alkmost all key or material witnesses withdrawing or disappeared or intimidated, Mensouda had no choice but to withdraw the case.

 

The first important hurdle, that is the establishment of the International Criminal Court, has now been successfully overcome. States party to the Rome Treaty now have to decide ways and means by which they can strengthen the ICC's Investigatory capacity and authority, especially in cases where a suspect or accused  holds or is close to power. The UN Security Council has to give the Prosecutor extra-ordinary powers to investigatewith or without the cooperation of the State concerned. Th UN must also strengthen its Witness protection programme. Lastly, the Security Council must reserve to itself power to punish leaders, like Jomo Kenyatta and Omar Bashir who refuse to cooperate with the ICC investigations. This may mean imposing travel bans, arrest warrants and other other economic sanctions against them so that they the continue to swagger around like Jomo Kenyatta whn in fact they should be locked up in prison as dangerous criminals. 
Written by 
George Okello
 
 

 

Current Ugandan political parties are just like anti-colonial movement parties of a bygone era:

Written by Professor J. B. R. Goya
 
Last Updated: 23 March 2015
 
UPC founder Milton Obote

The term movement legacy was first coined by professor emeritus, Goran Hyden in 2011, and by it I mean a pattern of political behavior that characterized anti-colonial nationalist movements in their struggles for independence.

Half a century since most countries gained independence, this form of behavior continues to shape ruling- and opposition party politics in Africa and Uganda, while frustrating the prospects for deepening democracy.

 

CAUSE-EFFECT

Nationalist movements in Uganda were spearheaded by three main sections: World War II veterans, a small not so well-educated elite class of clerical workers, and leaders of a nascent civil society.  These groups were united by a single but multi-faceted cause, namely to vanquish the colonial masters and take charge of the state apparatus.

Other than this mission, these groups remained committed to their particular identities. The issues were varied and subordinate to the cause. The anti-colonial movements adopted a simple but important strategy of popular mobilization for the cause. It was rare and in most cases illegal to campaign.

Most notably the movement against the British took place at the level of society because there were no representative bodies such as parliaments or legislative councils until much later in the struggle.  Membership to these movements was rather diffuse and fluid, but because there was a single movement, this was not detrimental to its dynamic and operation.

 

The deliberate policies of neoliberalism and GLB which were fostered by the World Bank in the African country of Uganda:
 
A former financial counsultant Mr Suruma is finally blowing the lid, and also implying that all this was done against M7's wishes:
 
 
 
Professor Ezra Suruma
 
Thank you very much for this important insightful article. You seem to have understood that one of the most blatant aims of new colonialism (neocolonialism) is to ensure that Africans are denied access and control of capital. The evidence is overwhelming. It started in 1987 when the World Bank financed consultants to do “diagnostic “ studies of locally owned banks:Bank of Uganda, Uganda Development Bank, Cooperative Bank and Uganda Commercial Bank. The findings were that all these banks were poorly managed, insolvent and candidates for restructuring, closure and privatization. The financial sector reform that ensued is discussed in my book:Advancing the Ugandan Economy, published by the Brookings Institution in 2014.
 
The old empty building of the Uganda Commercial Bank that was sold off by the current government of President Museveni.
 
Following the recommendations of the diagnostic studies a far reaching financial sector reform followed.The law governing the Bank of Uganda was scrapped. A new one was written. The main change was to make the Bank of Uganda independent of the Ministry of finance in particular and of government in general. That is why BOU can close domestic banks as if they are private property without bothering what parliament or any other branch of government thinks. They have successfully ensured that foreign banks ( read colonial banks) dominance grows and indigenous banks are harassed and closed. This is a critical hypothesis which all patriotic Ugandans can study and accumulate the evidence to show that neocolonialism in the financial sector has iincreased. Everything possible has been done to deny Ugandans access to
The ownership and control of capital. This  in turn has ensured that foreign investment is favored over domestic investment. Without capital Ugandans are destined to be laborers. Those who are not laborers will be unemployed beggars however educated they maybe. The rest will emigrate to the Middle East to work as slaves.
Secondly, The law governing the supervision of banks was also rewritten in 2004 so as to strengthen the powers of BOU in their supervision, making it impossible for Ugandans to start a bank by increasing the capital needed beyond their means. You need 25 billion to start a commercial bank! Even those who had started earlier were made to sell to foreigners as the minimum capital required kept rising. For example, Kigezi Bank of Commerce which we had started to help in developing Kigezi area struggled to remain open when the minimum capital required was increased from 2 billion to 5 billion. We were forced to look for new investors both domestic and foreign. The domestic investors brought in very little. We were lucky to get some Asians from Kenya who came in and now owned 76 percent of the bank. Later on when we tried to get those shares back we were dragged into the
Temangalo saga which our enemies were using to stop us from regaining control of the bank. In the end it was closed anyway because the neocolonial masters and their agents are determined to stop Ugandans from owning and controlling capital.
Similarly, Uganda Commercial Bank was privatized because the colonialists could not bear to see Ugandans controlling such a strong bank with nearly half of all bank deposits in Uganda. At first they gave the excuse that it was insolvent. I gave up my position as Deputy Governor and went to UCB and restructured it. It became profitable. I was triumphant and told the World Bank that the UCB was now profitable so there was no need to privatize it. The World Bank delegation remarked casually, to me, that “now it will fetch a better price.” That is when I realized that “insolvency “ that is, lack of profitability, was just an excuse to take the bank from us. The bank had been profitable from 1965 to 1987 except for 1978 when their buildings in Masaka were destroyed in the Tanzania war so the loss of those buildings were written off resulting in an overall loss. Otherwise the bank had a history of profitability. The fact that it was government owned had not stopped it from profitability. Today the four biggest banks in terms of assets in the whole world are government owned: ICBC, China Construction Bank, The Agricultural Bank of China and Bank of China. The idea that government cannot operate a profitable institution is a sickening lie.
Alongside the restructuring of the Bank of Uganda - with advisors from Washington, London and Australia- came the closure of Cooperative Bank and the restructuring of the Uganda Development Bank. The President of Uganda resisted successfully pressure from the IMF to sell Uganda Development Bank.
When I became minister of finance in 2005 I was immediately required to come up with a paper on micro finance. I moved around the country looking for examples of successful micro finance practice. I found successful saccos and recommended that model. It was adopted by cabinet. My colleague General Saleh worked with me to draft regulations for the Saccos. Before we could take them to Parliament for adoption we were dropped from finance!  In my case I had just been voted the best Minister of finance with GDP economic growth rates ranging from 7% to 10.3%  perhaps the highest on record!
Looking back I wonder if my dismissal in 2009 when our attempts to build local capital through SACCOS was similar to my dismissal in 1996 when I was sacked from UCB for making it profitable and resisting its sale.
When we proposed SACCOS as a means to increase domestic savings and credits for our people we knew that they had to be effectively regulated. Without regulation and supervision people’s money would be stolen. When we left finance in 2009 the regulations were put aside until 2018 when they were finally legislated by Parliament. By then many saccos including the one in my parish which had once flourished and helped so many people had failed.
Incidentally with the new regulations the hand of the Bank of Uganda was smuggled in and the processes of registration became more complicated. For example, before you can register a Sacco members have to be trained by a government commercial officer. In every case I have been involved we had to pay at least 100,000 to the commercial officer as “transport “ to the commercial officer to come and train us. Even in Kampala!
Herbert Sabiti’s observations about the extension of BOU into savings and profit cooperatives will see the last window of freedom to form local capital subjected to the control of the number one neocolonial agency in Uganda. The facts are clear: Bank of Uganda has the most continuous presence of foreign advisers of any institution I know of in Uganda. The impact of that advice is the closure and persecution of Indigenous financial institutions. It is clear that no ugandan can open a bank now. The bank of uganda has made sure that that no longer happens. Moreover, even the few avenues that we tried to open for Ugandans such as saccos are being closed.
The threat to our future has never been greater than it is today. The ideology that foreign capital should be given every privilege while African investment is persecuted and treated with contempt is before our eyes. We are made to see foreign investment being praised as our own businesses and lands are taken over by foreign banks because we cannot repay loans from foreign banks given to us at exorbitant interest. The lies tha interest rates would come down if UCB was privatized were precisely that: lies.
From Congo to Cape Town the economic fate of the Blackman is as precarious as the fate of the young men on boats in the Mediterranean Sea or the young girls traveling to the Middle East only to end up as slaves, prostitutes and organ donors. Do not be deceived. Colonialism is not only real it is growing and we are losing even the land we had remained with at “independence “. If you do not believe me check your parish and see how much land remains with the natives and how much has been bought by foreigners. I hope I am wrong. But do the research and let us know on this platform.
 
 
 
 
 
 

The Uganda Revenue Authority has registered Shs 149bn revenue shortfall for August 2019:

Written by URN

 

URA commissioner general Doris Akol addressing the media

URA commissioner general Doris Akol addressing the media

 

Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) realized less revenue last month with both domestic and international taxes performing poorly.    

According to the ministry of Finance filings for the month, collections in August were below target by Shs 149 billion. Overall, URA collected Shs 1.4 trillion in August, out of which Shs 1.3 trillion was tax revenues. 

All tax heads - corporation taxes, PAYE, value-added taxes and import taxes registered a shortfall. This is an indicator that the economy has not picked up as the financial year 2019/20 has just started. Government's spending during the month was also below target which means many businesses that depend on government to make money by supplying it were not able to do so.

International taxes had a shortfall of Shs 70.62 billion, the biggest of all. This is because of the lower imports than had been projected. Domestic direct taxes registered a Shs 10.2bn shortfall, mainly because of lower collections on rental income and corporation taxes during the month.

Non-tax-revenue was also below target. URA collected Shs 88 billion against the Shs 143 billion target for August. URA is expected to collect Shs 20 trillion in the 2019/20 financial year. Government will run a budget of Shs 40.1tn. If tax collections continue to perform poorly, it means that the government will be compelled to borrow more domestically to fund budget needs.

Nb

This is an African institution that has convinced itself that the more it collects revenue for the government, the better the government will be to provide services. 
That is why it seems it is the habit of putting up impossible targets of revenue collection for itself. While on the other side, the tax payer is not at all convinced.

Any responsible tax payer wants to pay his tax responsibilities with the hope that public service in this country will improve greatly not only for his or her business to flourish but for the other foreign competitors to do the same. 
There are clearly very many foreign rich companies that are exonerated from paying a single shilling in tax to this country.
 
What one would expect is that all these foreign companies come over and invest all their money and at the end of a five or ten years period, these companies come out with a good report of their economic development and then demand a tax rebate as they try to hand over their franchise to the country's business communities. 
Business entities want to pay taxes if they observe that their money is benefiting the various communities in this country.
 
Supposing a business company comes along with 10 medium sized aeroplanes or to improve on the railways in engineering, tax will automatically be paid every other year as business gets along. 
What is so wrong when such a business entity requests for some tax rebate after some years of putting up such a long term business enterprise that will equip this country with a technical work force?

 

 

 

 

 

Wano e Buganda, Mr Kagimu Kiwanuka agamba omulangira Wasajja yawaayiriza kitaawe ku by’okuba ettaka lya Ssekabaka Muteesa II:

Multi Media

 

4 February, 2019

 

Omusika w’eyaliko Ssaabalamuzi wa Uganda Benedicto Kiwanuka, atadde omulangira wa Buganda David Wasajja ku nninga aveeyo yeetondere famile eno olw’okudda ku kitaawe n’amuyita omubbi era omufere w’ettaka.

The commission of land enquiry in Land Ownership in Uganda

 

 

 

 

 

The government of Uganda is to put up more tax on modern users of social media communication:

A WhatsApp user in Kampala. President

 

A WhatsApp user in Kampala. President Museveni has proposed taxes on users of WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, Skype and Viber. PHOTO BY MICHAEL KAKUMIRIZI  


1st April, 2018
By Yasiin Mugerwa & Tom Malaba

Faced with an increasingly critical citizenry, the government has slapped new taxes on social media platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, Skype and Viber to stop what the President has called lugambo (gossip).
The President also targets commercial buildings to boost government revenue from the Shs50b the taxman collects from landlords annually.

The President criticised the ‘concealment’ of taxes in housing sector as ‘scandalous’ and asked Mr Kasaija and his team at Finance ministry to get serious.

The new tax proposals castigated by social media users, including human rights defenders and Opposition leaders as “diversionary, deceptive, injurious to individual freedoms and burdensome” have been confirmed by Mr Kasaija, the Secretary to Treasury, Mr Keith Muhakanizi, and State House officials.

The proposed tax measures that seek to help Mr Museveni’s government raise between Shs400 billion and Shs1.4 trillion from social media users annually, were ordered by the President in a March 12 letter to Finance minister Matia Kasaija.

“I am not going to propose a tax on internet use for educational, research or reference purposes... these must remain free. However, olugambo on social media (opinions, prejudices, insults, friendly chats) and advertisements by Google and I do not know who else must pay tax because we need resources to cope with the consequences of their lugambo,” Mr Museveni wrote.

Plan
The President, however, did not explain how lugambo has affected resource mobilisation.
And on the issue of the so-called “over-the-top” platforms (OTTs) such as WhatsApp, Skype Viber, Twitter, etc, Mr Museveni wrote: “If we were to introduce a small fee of Uganda Shs100 per day from sim-cards that are used by these OTTs, that would generate about Shs400 billion additional revenue.”

He further explained that this estimate is on the basis of the minutes used by Ugandans over OTT and that this does not include undeclared calls and data by the telephone companies.

“These could be in the magnitude of $400m per year. This is all to do with airtime excise duty and tax on voice over OTT and phones (mobiles and fixed),” he added.

Mr Kasaija, who the President scolded for “lack of seriousness” in identifying tax sources and collecting more taxes for the country, also confirmed the disputed taxes measures.

Mr Kasaija however, explained that the directives in the President’s letter are “a Cabinet directive” and that the details will be contained in the new tax bills to Parliament.
In trying to widen the tax base in the 2018/19 budget, Mr Museveni has proposed new taxes on telephones data transmission and the housing sector which he says generates rented incomes but are not adequately taxed. The details will be contained in the new tax bills.

Delving into the details of the new tax proposals, the President added: “The big losses on telephones are in three areas: not collecting excise duty on airtime and only collecting VAT, missing many calls because you depend on false declarations by telephone companies and not taxing voice conversations and other non-educational communications over the internet (via social media, whatsApp, face book etc). Why not put excise duty on (internet) air time?”

Telecom companies have reacted with consternation, rejected the tax proposals as uncalled for and grumble about “double taxation”, a taxation principle that refers to income taxes paid twice on the same source of earned income.

The MTN general manager of corporate service, Mr Anthony Katamba, denied claims that telecom companies falsify declarations.
He told Sunday Monitor that imposing excise duty on social media is taxing content.

“The data you buy gives you internet. So taxing social media is a taxing content,” Mr Katamba said, adding that if government goes ahead to implement the proposed tax, “it would be unprecedented.”

On taxation, Mr Katamba said: “URA assess us for tax based on the minutes used, you cannot hide that. If you chose to under declare, how do you gain by hiding the minutes? It’s not possible because MTN has to bill another entity for the minutes.”
Citing calls from Britain where MTN has to bill the British Telecom, Mr Katamba asked, “If I under declare, then how will MTN get its money from British Telecom.”

However, a senior official from Uganda Telecom, who requested not to be named because he or she is not authorised to speak to journalists, backed the President ideas and accused URA and Ministry of Finance officials of sleeping on the job when most Uganda are busy making free calls off social media platforms such as Viber, Facebook and WhatsApp etc.

According to this official, URA has allowed telecom companies to take home a wider profit margin, denying government the billions of shillings needed to finance the budget.

Taxes on Telecom companies
In asking URA to widen its tax base, UTL sources indicated that URA charges excise duty and VAT on voice calls yet the trend has changed, people are using airtime more for data than voice calls.
Data from URA show that telecoms pay 18 per cent VAT and 12 per cent excise duty on airtime for voice calls but only VAT on data yet mobile phone subscribers use more of data than voice.

The telecoms also pay corporate tax which is determined from the net earnings and 2 per cent on gross earning to the regulator- the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC). However, both VAT and excise duty are passed on to the consumers.

In lecturing government economists at Finance ministry on the principles of taxation, the President Museveni, who is a student of economics and political science, invoked the equivalence of a shirt manufacturing plant to justify the need to tax airtime for internet access and widen the tax base, something his critics say has eluded his government for 32 years.

“When you manufacture a shirt you pay excise duty at the factory level. When the shirt is, eventually, sold, it also pays VAT, paid by the consumer. Whether the shirt is bought or not, it will have paid the excise duty. Are your officials aware of these principles of taxation?” he asked Mr Kasaija again.

Mr Muhakanizi told Sunday Monitor that Mr Kasaija will table the new tax measures contained in Parliament on Tuesday even as some lawmakers such as Mr Nandala Mafabi (Budadiri West) vowed to block what they ridiculed as “WhatsApp tax”.

 

Complaint
Some MPs, economists and independent experts in the ICT sector have accused the President of ‘deepening the tax base’ as opposed to widening it, a move they say would balance the books on the backs of the poor.

Mr Venansius Baryamureeba, the Vice Chancellor of Uganda Technology and Management University and a former dean of Makerere University Faculty of Computing and IT, asked the President to drop the proposed tax measures in public interest, and instead cut taxes on smartphones and make internet affordable to ease access to information.

Mr Julius Mukunda, the executive director of Civil Society Budget Advocacy Group (CSBAG) explained: “From the point of view of pro-poor and progressive taxation, If you charge Shs100 per day then everybody will pay but when you charge say 1 per cent, it will be proportionally a way of expanding the tax base because it will only be paid by the rich.”

He added: “We can have the tax but how will it be collected, we rely on telecom companies to collect tax. So we need to put in place an infrastructure to help government to collect this tax. Currently nobody knows how much money we collect from telecom companies.”

 

MPs call for focus on fighting corruption

In choosing new taxes against increased borrowing, the Finance minister, according to sources, will tell Parliament next week how Cabinet took the decision to widen the tax base in order to finance government projects because further borrowing from the domestic market will lead to un-sustainability of our debt and may destabilise our macro-economy.

Instead of taxing Facebook and WhatsApp, some of the MPs on the ICT and the Budget Committees of Parliament asked the President and Mr Kasaija to focus on the fight against corruption and other forms of financial indiscipline in government in order to save the funds needed for service delivery.

The MPs have cited a 2016 survey by the procurement authority that revealed the raging plunder of public resources through inflated procurement deals and ranks key spenders such as Education and Defence ministries among the worst thieving government agencies.

The “performance results and corruption perceptions in public procurement” survey carried out by the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Authority (PPDA) blames corruption in procurement on “political meddling in the procurement processes”, impunity and a decadent culture that adores wealth accumulation. In 2005, the World Bank estimated that Uganda loses more than $300 million through corruption and procurement malpractices every year.


Response to proposed tax

Keith Muhakanizi, Secretary to Treasury: “Taxing airtime needed a law and we have put that into a proposal that will go to Parliament on Tuesday. If Parliament allows the taxation of social platforms then the law will come into effect starting July this year.”

Amos Lugolobi, chairperson of Budget Committee of Parliament: “The proposal to tax social media is a wise move if government is to sustain its revenue collection. The world is changing from analogue to digital, including the media, there are people accessing the Daily Monitor on social media. So Government also needs to follow this shift if it’s to realise revenue. Government needs to balance between collecting revenue and access to information and keep the rate low. The best way to widen the tax base would be to increase the manufacturing sector which is very low compared to GDP ratio. With that there would be many manufacturers who consume electricity and water and pay other forms of taxes that would increase the tax base. URA lacks the capacity to reach all taxable areas up-country that a man who sales his 100 cows cannot be reached to collect tax that needs to be addressed by having regional offices.”

Anthony Katamba, MTN general manager of corporate services:
“Imposing excise duty on social media is taxing content. The data you buy gives you internet. Taxing social media is a tax on content. If the government goes ahead to implement the tax, it would be unprecedented. Saying that we under declare our calls is not true. URA assesses us for tax based on the minutes used. You cannot hide that. If you chose to under declare, again, how do you do it? It’s not possible because MTN has to bill another entity for those minutes. For calls from Britain, for instance, MTN has to bill a British telecom. So if we under declare then how will MTN get its money from British Telecom?”

Livingstone Ssewanyana, Foundation for Human Rights Initiative (FHRI) executive director: “Widening the tax base is not bad but government needs to be mindful of access to information. What the President is proposing, taxing people spreading lugambo, is an attempt to undermine individual freedoms. The tax will not only hurt those who criticise government, but even innocent people. That tax aims to exploit local people. It’s diversionary, deceptive and burdensome to the people. People are already paying VAT, PAYE, Property Tax and are complaining. So it’s not reasonable to continue to overburden the tax payer with a tax on social media. Government collects a lot of money already, what it needs to deal with is corruption.”

Dr Ezra Suruma, Makerere University chancellor (former Finance minister): “Taxation is a complex subject. I need to know the intention of the new proposals and how the tax on data would be implemented to be able to comment with authority. But we pay tax when buying phones and airtime and taxing data would be an extension of tax on communication.”

editorial@ug.nationmedia.com

 

 

 

 

 

In Uganda, the NRM controlled Parliament is again faced with a small financial problem against the Minister of Finance:

The embattled Finance Minister, Mr Matia Kasaija and his NRM financial cadre Mr Keith Muhakanize

By Misairi Thembo Kahungu

3rd February, 2018

 

 

President Museveni and Cabinet ministers on Wednesday rejected a request from the Finance minister, Mr Matia Kasaija, to shield him from an impending censure motion in Parliament.
Mr Kasaija and Secretary to the Treasury Keith Muhakanizi were named in the Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (Pac) report on abuse of millions of dollars the government received from an African bank to procure medicines and fund foreign exchange expenditure requirements of government, as and when they arise.
Sources told Saturday Monitor that when Kasaija requested the President to come to his recue before it is too late, the ministers, including his colleagues from the Finance docket, except for deputy Attorney General Mwesigwa Rukutana opposed his request and instead asked him to account for the $200m (about Shs723b at the current dollar rate).
When contacted on Thursday, Mr Kasaija said: “I was not grilled in Cabinet over that matter…. I am the one who raised it to tell my colleagues that my name has come up in the (Pac) report. Was I grilled? Not at all and your sources, if known, need to be punished for leaking Cabinet secrets. But, either way some people are being malicious to me…”

The loan
The loan in question was sourced from the Eastern and Southern African Trade and Development Bank (PTA Bank) against the technical advice of the Bank of Uganda Governor, Mr Emmanuel Tumusiime Mutebile.
Saturday Monitor investigations have also revealed that this same loan was rejected by the 9th Parliament on account that it was unnecessary to borrow millions of dollars to stabilise the economy when there are other “sustainable” ways of fixing the economy.
Mr Kasaija and his team, however, went back and returned with another justification for the loan. This time they talked of a crisis in the country on account of a shortage of medicines. It was on this basis that Parliament approved the disputed loan.
However, the principal beneficiary of the loan, National Medical Stores (NMS), did not receive the money and in trying to account for the $200m, Finance ministry officials reverted to the original justification- the need for stabilisation of the exchange rate.
By the time this newspaper broke the story in May 2017, out of $200m in question, PTA Bank had released $72.1m, of which $42.7m was meant for the purchase of medicines under NMS; $26.4m for settlement of contractors’ invoices under the rural electrification programme, and transport sector and $2.8m for the importation of earth moving equipment from Japan.
Although it was the missing medicines cash that exposed the loan scandal, some of the MPs who investigated the matter, told Saturday Monitor that they found no evidence that other intended beneficiaries (transport and power sectors) received their share. It was Speaker Rebecca Kadaga who asked Pac to probe the missing funds from PTA Bank.
Attempts by Mr Kasaija to divert accountability questions to junior minister David Bahati and the technical team at Treasury, however, fell on deaf ears after Security minister Gen Henry Tumukunde told him that blaming technical people would not be wise. Other ministers kept asking one question: “Where is the money?” and Mr Kasaija kept giving one answer: “The money was put in the Consolidated Fund.”
According to sources, one of the ministers accused Mr Kasaija, in front of the President, of telling lies. The minister told the President that the Bank of Uganda governor opposed the loan request and even wrote to the Finance ministry officials to reconsider, but they ignored him.
Cabinet heard that Mr Kasaija wrote to the Speaker claiming that he had not given NMS money for medicines because they had not provided the accountability, yet part of the documents ministry of Finance officials used to secure the loan in question, were from NMS.
Mr Gerald Karuhanga, the vice Pac chairman, who investigated this matter and drafted the report to Parliament, yesterday accused Mr Kasaija and Muhakanizi of telling lies and hailed the Cabinet decision as a step in the right direction in the fight against corruption.
“We are not after individuals. We just want people to account for public funds and stop the abuse of borrowed funds,” Mr Karuhanga said. “In our report we have recommended censure of Mr Kasaija and removal of Mr Muhakanizi because of their misdeeds in the handling of public funds… the two principals were in cahoots and had a plan to misuse public funds.”
Mr Muhakanizi could not be reached for a comment for this story. He did not take our repeated phone calls and also did not respond to a text message about the subject. But when he appeared before Pac on June 4, 2017 over the matter, Mr Muhakanizi denied wrongdoing and described the inquiry as “misdirected”.
He instead advised the MPs to task the Inspector General of Government or the Auditor General to conduct an investigations.
“What is the whole probe about? Everything was done properly and I will prove that; the documents are available,” Mr Muhakanizi said at the time.He said the money was pooled into the Consolidated Fund and spent on approved expenditures.
Mr Karuhanga and other Pac members, however, rejected Mr Muhakanizi’s explanation and insisted that they were not given satisfactory accountability documents to prove that indeed the money reached the beneficiaries. The MPs insist that the money in question was approved by Parliament for particular purposes.

Kasaija’s request rejected
In what some ministers have called a slap in the face, Mr Museveni rejected Mr Kasaija’s pleadings and directed the Office of the Auditor General to audit the expenditures from the Consolidated Fund. Mr Kasaija, according to sources, begged for the understanding of his colleagues but they insisted that he should carry his own cross.
Responding to the accusations, Mr Kasaija said: “I am ready to defend myself when the report comes up for debate in the plenary because the money was all spent and nothing was lost. Those MPs who are thinking I should be censured are either not informed or have ill intentions. I plead not guilty on that allegation because we accounted for everything.”
Although PTA Bank in November 2016 provided narrations and indicated that the money was for the purchase of medicines, equipment and accessories, Mr Kasaija, on April 27, 2017 asked NMS general manager Moses Kamabare to procure medicines and supplies on credit and promised that the funding gap of more than Shs40b “will take the first call on the 2017/18 budget”.

 

CC: Jonny Rubin <jnnyrubin@yahoo.co.uk>
Sent: Fri, 5 Nov 2021 17:38
Subject: {UAH} WHAT IS MOTOR VEHICLE 3RD PARTY ("saadi parti" ) INSURANCE?

WHAT IS MOTOR VEHICLE 3RD PARTY ("saadi parti" ) INSURANCE?

Third Party insurance covers the damage that may be caused by one car to another person's property, not being the owner or driver or of that insured car. Basically, if a taxi has that party insurance (as the law demands all cars must) and that taxi knocks you or destroys your property then you can recover money to compensate you for the damage. After the accident, you need to d the following so that you can recover from the incident;

1. Take pictures and gather as much information as you can at the scene of the accident.

2. Find out whether the person who caused the accident is insured and get his or her contacts.

3. Get the contact details of any witnesses

4. If there are police officers present give them your statement and make sure you get the Crime Reference Number if a file is opened up.

5. Make a note of any other relevant information. If you want to make a recovery you have got to be proactive and keep in touch with the person who caused the accident, also make sure if there is any medical assistance required to keep the receipts and present them when needed.