Excise Duty (Amendment) No.2 Bill 2018 that is seeking for reduction of one per cent tax levied on withdraw of cash using mobile money, has been referred to the Committee on Finance, Planning and Economic Development for consideration.
Before presenting the bill for first the reading, the minister for finance planning and economic development Matia Kasaijja given in and apologized to August house over allegations that he was disguising that he doesn’t know about the one per cent mobile money tax yet he signed the proposal endorsing it to Parliament.
“I did not say that the House passed the taxes in error, I applauded Parliament for passing the budget and apologies for the statement by the media attributed to me,” he said in parliament.
Leader of opposition in parliament (LOP) and Kasese woman MP Winnie Kiiza demanded that Kasaijja produces a written apology however the house chaired by Deputy Speaker Jacob Oulanya said his apology is admitted.
The Deputy Speaker asked the Committee to conclusively consider the different petitions that were filed by Mobile money vendors and Makerere University students before deferring it for the second reading.
Kawempe north MP Latif Ssebaggala asked the Speaker to give a time frame in which the committee will handle the bill saying the House cannot wait for the 45 days. However Oulanya said the matter will be handled quickly as possible.
In an effort to have self-sufficiency in budget, Excise Duty Bill, 2018 was passed by Parliament on May 30 with Social media platforms such as WhatsApp, Twitter, Facebook, You Tube, Viber and Skype among others were subjected to a daily levy of Shs200 as mobile money transaction were subjected to 1 per cent excise duty.
Following various protests against both taxes, Last week President Museveni said 0.5 per cent of the tax incurred while transacting on Mobile money will be refunded to all people who were deducted one per cent on mobile money transaction. Museveni contended that he mistakenly ratified the law without proof reading.