Mobile money tax was introduced as a financial boost to the 2018/19 budget in July. 3 months down the road, the Uganda revenue authority (URA) has revealed a joint collected figure clocking to 103 billion shillings. This comes at a time when the president ordered the ministry of finance to slash the 1% tax to 0.5% though no changes have been made so far
While mobile money tax was addressed as an evil tax to the economy by several protesters. URA’s collected tax shows high compliance by mobile money users in Uganda at a time when telecoms still collect a 1% tax off Withdraws shuttering the 0.5% dream. More so, Parliament is expected to have a joint sitting over the tax policy which has so far garnered billions of shillings off mobile transactions inclusive of sending and withdraws
In a story by the Daily monitor, URA has managed to score the ultimate UGX 103billion for the past 3 months, meaning July, August, and September eliminating October. However, this means that by 2019, URA would have collected over UGX 206 billion if the compliance rate remains static. On the other hand, OTT tax collections have not been shared yet with a projection of the expected targets by 2019 and past 3 months collections
As VPNs continue to populate every now and then on smartphone stores, mobile money tax is one solution which has only had alternatives and Zero tolerance to bypassing tricks. In addition, the collected tax still raves at 1% and nobody knows when the 0.5% will apply on mobile money withdraws only. Nonetheless, what do you think about the hit URA targets, Share with us your opinions below.