Besigye to join city traders in tax protest

Traders have announced a nationwide strike over the taxation policies

Fresh from his western region consultations and then from sending off their fallen activists in Teso, the opposition stalwart Kizza Besigye has dived into the running city traders strike protesting what he refers to as a bad taxation regime.

“A Ugandan trader is like a cow that is being milked but no fed, they pay VAT, withholding tax, import duties, occupation tax and copyright tax if it’s a hotel industry and may others but the collected funds is not reflected in the needs of the community but pocketed by a few," Besigye said.

"Traders should not call of the strike or honour any call to meet the president without if their gradiences are not addressed “

To Besigye, who was addressing the media at his Katonga office on Monday, the government deliberately over taxes small scale enterprises with the intention to keep the population at a low end.

With political parties already embroiled in political differences, Besigye believes double taxation being committed by the regime is an evil that every patriotic Ugandan including those in NRM should unite and join him to fight against.

“Activist in the NUP, DP, UPC and others should all join us in the struggle to save Ugandan tax payers from the tax burden,” Besigye said.

The traders have spent weeks long on strike protesting the taxman’s enforcement of the electronic receipt to determine applicable taxes.

Traders found dodging the new receipting system risks paying over Shs6 million in fines.