The most important responsibility of the Parliament is to protect and cushion its citizens from being exploited. Already our people are leading and living in a very hostile economic environment.
I find it absurd to live in a country that relies on one person’s vision against a shared collective vision. This beats my understanding to frog people in one place to listen to the President when the President himself sits away from the crowd aware of the danger of health risks.
Where is the Taxation Policy that should have handled such a situation and where are the technocrates? I even fail to understand the logic behind gathering the crowds in Kololo who can become a healthy risk of communicable diseases to themselves.
There is a saying in my mother tongue, that many rats do not dig holes, the insinuation is that where there are very many heads, nothing will be agreed on or resolved, that’s why the white man created committees.TrendingJUST IN: Bobi Wine Breaks Silence As Nandala Mafabi Drags NUP Into FDC Chaos
If a Parliament of about 570 MPs cannot have an effective logical debate then how does one expect miracles to happen in Kololo with such a huge crowd? This should have been resolved by people trained in the field of Trade, Finance, and Economics and with a few representatives of traders. I’m even surprised why the taxes are hurriedly being increased when the economy is booming according to figures from Finance.
I find the President’s view is to impose new taxes as a deterrence tax on textiles as a measure, stopping traders from importing cheap textiles because our local textiles are unable to compete with imported ones. However, the problem of the local textile industry starts at the farm gate of cotton production.
Cotton cultivation in Uganda has desperately fallen to a level that it cannot sustain our local production. If our textiles industry is to be productive and work well, for now, we have to import cotton and begin increasing production of cotton and improve the quality of material and tailoring designs to compete on the world market.
We need to borrow a leaf from the Bangladeshi people. Ugandans would buy from our local factories if they have the capacity of sustainability to supply, quality, and fair pricing.
The consequences of unfair or high taxes in a landlocked country will have serious repercussions and ramifications on the economy and thus invite the smuggling of goods from our neighbors because our locally manufactured goods will fail to compete with cheap goods from our neighbors.
You will recall that one thing that caused the French Revolution was unfair taxes because the top political cream of the country just enjoyed the benefits of the taxes while the majority who were already downtrodden, and who already faced the high cost of living, worked hard to support the economy and in the end even sustained the opulent lifestyles of the top political cream.
Today in Uganda, the same is happening which we may call exploitation of the highest order of the people. The traders and the population at large are victims of bad decisions and governance.
The few people who benefit from these taxes are a class of people here in Uganda when our children go to school without meals, our hospitals are empty, and our roads in Kampala are in a pathetic state.
Kampala is also home to the President of Uganda and is the seat of Government, and while the same class does shopping in the very same expensive London shops where also that the Royal UK family does its shopping as well.
This same money collected by taxman allocated to something seemingly that appears like a semi-vaccine pharmaceutical factory with a few workers, here and there, is provided with over half a trillion shillings, and another huge amount is given to a nonexistent Hospital in Lubowa.
To continue with shopping where the British Royal family and the super-rich, people like music stars, film stars, sports stars, and mega global rich do their shopping. Other people like Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Zuck Zuckerberg, and Jef Besos, these guys wealth is equivalent to a quarter of Africa’s GDP. Imagine doing shopping where a dress costs £100.000 equivalent to 470 million UGX. A pair of shoes is £50.000, a watch Rolex goes for £500.000 and a wedding earnings, cut and polished pink diamond goes for £1.000000m.
How does the UK or British government that provides aid to poor Uganda feel and see the waste of taxpayers’ money being spent on exorbitant lavish shopping sprees by some individuals in government from a poor country with such reckless immunity in an extravagant manner? Why couldn’t this be brought to their attention? These guys have effective intel systems to protect their economies and wealth unlike here where are preoccupied with regime survival.
Our GDP is just about $25 billion compared to that of the UK GDP which is about $4000 billion. So This appetite to tax capital and production will seriously demotivate and undermine our people because of the way how their taxes are finally used.Why are our traders denied incentives like those to those given from outside? These high taxes are sending the business community into flight.
Both the President and Parliament have to work for the interest of the citizens. They have to offer a fair ground for the people but not exploit them. The government has to invest more capital incentives by reducing the interest rates for bank loans. The money borrowed from banks is too expensive.
President Museveni, please live a safer Uganda for your children more particularly the one you want to succeed you so that ours share the same opportunities because you once said you fought for yourself and your family. For us, we fought for the good of the country.
For God and My Country.
Paul Mugoya Polly,Concerned Citizen, Veteran FRONASA, Former UPM Youth Leader Bugisu, Former FDC Chairman Sironko, Former Chairman Elders Forum, BCU.
PAUL MUGOYA: Consequences Of Unfair Taxation On The People Of Uganda
