Taxis operating outside Kampala are to start paying 720,000 shillings annually. This is the same fee that will be paid by taxis that operate inside Kampala city. Taxis that ply the Kampala-upcountry route will pay 240,000 shillings per year.
Bus fees have been set at 2.4 million shillings per year.
The new licence fees were announced by Local Government State Minister Jennifer Namuyangu on Tuesday, October 16, 2018.
Namuyangu added that government expects to collect every year over 26.4 billion from this transport sector. Namuyangu was sharing with the press the cabinet position on the matter.
She further revealed that, “Sixty percent of the money collected from taxi plying the Kampala route will remain with Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) while the remaining money will go to the districts they are heading to.”
Once a driver has selected and paid for a route, they cannot change to another route until a year elapses and the licence comes up for renewal.
Drivers and taxi owners will no longer have to pay other fees. The yearly licences abolish fees like stage management fees, loading fees, and use of the taxi parks fees.
Namuyangu explained that the yearly licences are part of the reorganisation of government agency operations.
“Kampala Capital City Authority will carry out the role of sensitizing the operators, the Works and Transport Ministry will ensure the operators are issued with stickers for a given route and the tax body Uganda Revenue Authority will be in charge of collecting the operational fees,” she said.
Taxi owners and operators, however, expressed dismay at the new fees. They said that the new fees are still too high. They argued that many of the taxis on the road are too old to make enough money to raise the fees.
The changes follow a presidential directive that operational fees for taxis in Kampala be reduced from 1.4 million shillings per year to 700,000 shillings. President Yoweri Museveni suggested that taxis that travel upcountry pay a yearly fee of 500,000 shillings per year.
Collection of fees from the taxis and buses had been suspended pending agreement on new fees.
Government records indicate that there are 34,000 taxis and 960 buses in the country.
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