Museveni postpone meeting with traders to July

President Museveni has postponed his planned meeting with traders to next month to enable both parties prepare.

According to John Kabanda the president of the Federation of Uganda Traders Association (FUTA), the meeting which was slated to take place on Thursday June 20 at Kololo ceremonial grounds will not happen in order to allow the head of state to complete his research on the Electronic Fiscal Reciepting and Invoicing System (EFRIS) by the Uganda Revenue Authority.

Kabanda revealed this to the press on Wednesday after a meeting with the president at State Entebbe in which he said they held discussions on critical issues affecting traders in the country.

"The president explained to us a number of issues and requested us to allow him more time to study and do research on the contatoius issues that were raised by traders in our last meeting at Kololo last month," he said

Among them included new electronic invoicing system, value added taxes, investors flooding the distribution channels meant for local traders among others.

President Museveni has now promised to meet the traders on July 31 but asked them to be more orderly compared to the previous meeting.

Kabanda who was flanked by his executive members requested for calmness from the traders that day and also attend in large numbers with a representation at least from every region.

"As the president is doing his research, let us also make ours such that on July 31, we hold our discussion based on facts to secure a win-win situation in every matter," Kabanda added.

This is going to be the third meeting between President Museveni and traders in Kampala over the implementation of EFRIS by the tax body.

Traders especially in downtown Kampala closed down their shops twice in April and May which prompted the president to order URA halt the forceful implementation of EFRIS and also waive penalties from those who had not yet bought the system which benefited over 2000 traders.