“The Tax is affordable” Finance minister David Bahati

Minister of State for Finance, Planning and Economic Development (Planning), Hon. David Bahati has stated defended the newly-introduced OTT tax and excise duty tax slapped on mobile money transactions.

 While addressing the media today at Uganda Media Centre, he stated that the tax is affordable and should be embraced by Ugandans.

“When we (government) propose a tax it must be affordable and reasonable. We don’t think approx. Shs70,000 a year for social media is unreasonable. A tax is a small but affordable contribution, not a punishment. We should finance our budget fully.  We will account for the resources we get from tax collection”, he stated.

He further stated that the use of VPN to evade paying tax will be countered.

“We have contacted UCC so that usage of VPNs to access social media is stopped. The other good opportunity we have is that it’s more expensive using VPNs than simply paying the social media tax of Shs200”.

Bahati explained that the government needs to raise money to provide services.