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.
The mobile money tax drama and it’s expected revenue
Mobile money tax was ushered in on July 1st 2018. Since the, the Government has never looked back on choosing whether to proceed with implementing this tax more or consider the views of the people crying out loud for the high taxes imposed on a fast growing mobile banking side.
MTN Mobile money leading the highest revenue statistics followed by its one on one competitor Airtel money are set to bring in 18Bn shillings monthly to Government. Even though, the finance ministry urged all companies to refund the illegally collected taxes to customers. None of the two mobile money lords have refunded a single shilling by time of writing.
The fate of OTT Tax and Government’s plans for its in Uganda
VPN apps in Uganda are widely used for only one single reason which is to bypass social media tax currently similar to the 2016 presidental elections situation where the platforms were deliberatly blokced.
OTT tax or social media tax in Uganda was commented on as a tax that is for now not going anywhere given the many protests by opposition leaders against this tax as it still trends online. Among the few tricks UCC is reportedly working on is to block each and every VPN inorder to force users to spend UGX 200 daily on tax, a mesare that for now is unsuccessful. Therefore, all taxes remain intact and as the minister commented on Government’s measures, enough revenue has already been generated in less than 1 month from the 2018/19 budget flag off.