A section of dealers in animal and poultry feeds have welcomed the new import duty of 10% and VAT of 18% by URA on concentrate feed imported into the country.
According to Aimable Mbarushimana, the operations director for Murwana J.Peter Stores Limited, dealers in poultry and animal feeds, the tax will ensure that local manufacturers of the animal feeds get market share for their products.
He said the move will also empower and give capacity to others to manufacture animal feed locally instead of depending on imported ones.
Mbarushimana noted that by building capacity for local manufacturers of animal feeds, there will be creation of jobs and markets for local agriculture produce including soya bean, sunflower and cotton grown by farmers in Lira, Mityana, Gulu, Kasese and Bushenyi.
In addition, he said this will boost the Buy Uganda Build Uganda-BUBU initiative since locally produced feeds were being ignored by farmers.
Mbarushimana appealed to the government to support local feed dealers to produce quality products that match the international market standards to widen their market .
He has disclosed that local manufactures have capacity to produce enough feed but they have been facing challenges with imported feed.
At the same time the huge sums of money that go out of the country in buying concentrate feed from abroad will be saved and will widen the government tax base to the local manufacturers.
The development comes on the backdrop of protests by poultry farmers who said the new tax will see the prices of animal and poultry products skyrocket.
