Policy

Over the Top services (OTT) as commonly known in the Ugandan and Zambian circles for the tax hiked on them are a key Government's focus to earn extra GDP figures. Well, Kenya now has plans to implement a new OTT law different from what we already know through its communications commission

Over the top (OTT) tax was introduced in July amidst a public protest on the state of social media usage in Uganda. As much as OTT Tax was initially unveiled with a 12-hour validity period, Telecoms have now revised this period to 24hours

The National information technology authority (NITA) is a body regulating and coordinating the growth & robust impact of ICT in the country given its backbone internet infrastructure pumping free internet with the My UG SSID. However, the body will be no more after Government decided to merge serval agencies back to their parent firms including theNational Identification & Registration Authority (NIRA).

The fate of mobile money tax in Uganda and new adjustments made every now and then fueled in by the president seems to be leading to an activist direction. Mobile money tax plus its brother in law, OTT tax have once again been pronounced alive and active by the state mnister for finance Hon Bahati in a press review about these new taxes. Scrapping off a whole 0.5% on the levied mobile money tax, Telecom companies will now battle with refunds of illegal taxes collected from subscribers as directed by Government.

Social media taxes in Uganda are one of a kind and very unavoidable according to a statement by MTN in its FAQs. As Parliament previously approved the said social media taxes, Telecom companies have today backed the idea by releasing the official payment methods to be used when paying social media tax.