Rising cost of inputs, taxes worry manufacturers
The high cost of locally manufactured products is believed to be frustrating the Buy Uganda Build Uganda (BUBU) trade policy.
The manufacturers blame the situation on the rising cost of inputs and taxes imposed on imported raw
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materials.
Government has now moved to enforce and sensitise manufacturers about the duty remittance regulation under the East African Community that scrapped taxes on raw materials.
According to Allan Ssenyondwa the assistant manager policy at Uganda Manufacturers Association (UMA), many manufacturers barely have any idea about the scheme and it’s the reason they haven’t taken it up.
"By the end of the production process, a manufacturer must have put in a lot of money and effort and that’s a reason to explain the high prices, but now that there is a import duty free of raw materials that we didn’t know about this might bring change” said Ssenyondwa.
Under this scheme, imported raw material for the manufacture of sanitary towels and tampons have a remission of import duty at 0%.
This applies more to so manufacturers of petroleum jelly with the raw materials having a remission of 25% and many other products ranging from flavours for beverages and threads used in cloths manufacturing.
“All this aims at promoting local manufacturers to grow and be able to compete favourably as Uganda joins the common market” noted Masiko Elinathan, Supervisor Tariffs at URA.
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