A group of civil society organisations has asked parliament to pass the pending Tax Amendment Bills 2020 as tabled by the Ministry of Finance.
Addressing journalists on Monday, CSOs under the Tax Justice Alliance Uganda (TJAU) expressed concern over the delay by parliament to pass the remaining bills that they said would greatly affect the country.
“The second tax bills, were gazetted on March 30 ,2020 but did not appear on Parliament’s Order Paper until 25 September 2020. Since then, they have appeared on the Order Paper every day without ever being debated on the floor of parliament. This is so despite the fact that the Committee on Finance, Planning and Economic Development sought public opinion, held discussions and developed reports on the said bills,” said Regina Navuga, the program coordinator in charge of financing for development at SEATINI Uganda.
“It is also worth noting that the annual tax bills which were part of the process to ensure adequate financing of the budget for the financial year 2020/21 have also not been fully passed into law.”
The CSOs explained that bills including The Income Tax (Amendment) Bill 2020, The Excise Duty (Amendment) Bill 2020, The Value Added Tax (Amendment) Bill 2020 and the Stamp Duty (Amendment) Bill 2020 were on March,31 tabled by the Minister for Finance before parliament, discussed and sent to the president who assented to only two bills.
They said that the remaining bills are still subject to discussion by parliament before they can be sent back to the president for his assent but noted that the August House seems to be dilly-dallying over the matter.
“When the Members of Parliament (MPs) were fighting for their own tax relief, they were an unstoppable force. One cannot help, but admire the tenacity that they displayed back in 2016 when they unanimously stood up to the President to pass the provision in the Income Tax (Amendment) Act, 2016 which exempted the greater part of their earnings as MPs from income tax,”Navuga said.
“However, when it comes to passing tax relief measures that benefit the rest of Uganda, the same MPs are slow and uninterested. Moreover, Parliament is breaching Section 14(1) of the Public Finance Management Act of 2015 which requires Parliament to consider and approve any new tax laws by the 31st of May of each year. This is now October and the proposed laws have not yet even been considered.”
According to Xavier Ejoyi, the Action Aid Uganda Executive Director, having been hit badly by the Coronavirus lockdown, the Tax Amendment Bills is what will save Ugandans.
The Civil Society Organisations urged parliament to heed to the concerns with immediate effect to discuss the remaining tax bills and forward them to the president to assent to them.
“This will go a long way in ensuring that there is a fair, just and accountable tax system in Uganda.”
