Excise duty amendment bill to be tabled today

By  Samuel  Ssebuliba.

The ministry of finance is today set to table a revised Excise Duty (amendment)Bill 2018 that is intended to effect a reduction of tax on mobile money transactions from 1% to 0.5%.

This shift followed public outrage that forced the president to disown the 1% tax on all mobile money transactions saying it was passed in error and later cabinet agreed to reduce it to 0.5%, pending parliamentary approval.

This, according to the president’s proposal, will only apply to withdrawals and not deposits.

The State Minister of Finance in charge of planning David Bahati said earlier that government expects to collect Shs 118 billion in revenue from the new charge. Shs2bn has so far been collected since the tax came into effect on July 1^st.

Meanwhile the NRM caucus yesterday endorsed the president’s proposal on Mobile Money tax and agreed to maintain the Shs200 daily on social media despite a flurry of criticism from various circles.

Written by David Kugonza