The state minister for Lands Persis Namuganza has asked Ugandans to embrace the advantages that will come with mobile money instead of regretting the decision by parliament to create this tax.
Speaking to the journalists at parliament, Namuganza said that since the time Government scrapped graduated tax many Ugandans resorted to begging instead of working a practice that has stagnated the country’s economy.
Namuganza now suggests that the graduated tax be reinstated if people do not want to pay taxes such as mobile money. She has also accused her colleagues in opposition in parliament for trying to make government run into the crisis when they tried to block the mobile tax when it’s one of the items which was planned to fund the national budget.
Out of the 288 MPs present in parliament yesterday, 164 voted in favor of the Excise Duty Amendment Bill No 2, which provides for the 0.5 percent tax instead of the initial 1 percent, while 124 rejected the tax.
Majority of the MPs who rejected this tax also voted against the lifting of the age limit of the president.