Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) Commissioner General Doris Akol has called for the amendment, and in other cases abolition of several tax laws, including the OTT (Over-the-top media service).
She has also called for an amendment of the Tax Procedure Act to allow for installment payment of taxes over a financial year period, and for the repeal of some non tax charges on government services like verifying land titles, renewing passports and driving permits.
Appearing today with her URA team before the Parliamentary Committee on Finance to present the Budget Framework Paper for the FY 2020/21, CG Akol proposed a withdrawal of the OTT policy be considered given its rate of evasion and non-performance.
It is nearly two years since government introduced the OTT and its implementation faced resistance from sections of the public who preferred to use Virtual Private Networks (VPN).
Akol told the committee that revenue collection from OTT has suffered much evasion and thus there is need for amendment of the Excise Duty Act and have a policy shift to directly charge OTT on data other than from mobile money.
“We are proposing that parliament amends schedule 2 of the Excise Duty Act to possibly put excise duty on data. This will counteract the effect of OTT, making it a little bit efficient to collect tax on data instead of direct OTT on mobile money which is highly evaded and is not performing well,” Akol said.
The tax on social media was introduced by the executive and passed by parliament in 2018 amid widespread public outcry. The Shs200 daily tax on social media sites; Facebook, Twitter and Whatsapp, was introduced following a directive from President Museveni who argued that the tax would cut on the amount of time that Ugandans spend gossiping on social media, and enhance the URA revenue pool.
Akol also wants government to abolish some non-tax charges on some Government services like verifying land titles, renewing passports and driving permits among others.
