Almost every Ugandan is crying over the newly introduced taxes on both Mobile money and Social media, though he has made some amendments in the latter dues, all signs are that President Museveni is not willing to to the same to the former. He maintains that government will continue to collect the Ugsh 200 taxes per day for one to access social media sites.
Museveni insists that Social-media use is definitely a luxury item. According to him, Internet use can be sometimes for educational purposes and research and so shouldn’t be taxed. However, using internet to access social media for chatting, recreation, malice, subversion, inciting murder, is definitely a luxury. He asserts that the government will have to obtain taxes from use of the social media for development programs such as construction of roads.
President Yoweri Museveni
“As I said in my earlier message, it is, moreover, a luxury that is costly to the country’s economy apart from the shillings the users keep spending to use the internet to access the social media (Facebook),” Says President Yoweri Museveni.
The president’s statement comes high on the heel of a city protest that saw youth battle police on Kampala streets to demonstrate their anger over the social media tax. Will they yield anything positive? No body knows.
Meanwhile, Uganda has one of the most expensive internet costs in the world and the 2017 Affordability Report from the Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI) found that affordability continues to be a major obstacle to internet access that is compounded by high levels of income inequality.
Kalema Lawrence
