MPs interfacing with officials from Ministry of Finance

The Minister of State Planning, David Bahati and the technical team from Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development today appeared before Parliament’s Committee on Finance to discuss tax and revenue bills. These are the Income Tax (Amendment) (No.2) Bill,2020 and the Excise Duty(Amendment) (No.2) Bill,2020.

The Acting Director Economic Affairs at Finance Ministry, Moses Kaggwa said they want tax on imported and locally produced non recyclable polythene products in the country to facilitate the cleaning of places where they are dumped.

He noted that the proposed tax would enable establishment of more recycling plants in the country that will pay more taxes to the government.

Kaggwa added that if this tax is imposed on   both imported and locally non recyclable polythene products, government will realize Shs4bn in tax revenue compared to the previous collection of Shs1.2bn.

He explained that each imported non-recyclable kilogram of polythene bags will be charged a tax of Shs10,000.

However, Committee MPs presided over by Pakwaki district Woman MP, Jane Pachuto were concerned about the classification of polythene products for them to place the right tax on them to protect the local manufacturers and dumping of this product in the country.