Speaker Among has vowed to investigate how the top leadership of Parliament’s Finance Committee and officials of the Ministry of Finance attempted to sneak in a proposal that would have seen a 0.5% excise tax levy imposed on all bank transactions.
The Speaker’s warning followed a recommendation fronted by Jane Avur, Vice Chairperson Finance Committee who argued that the purpose of the proposal is to introduce excise duty on bank transactions.
She said, “The Committee recommends that the principal act be amended to include excise duty on withdraw of cash through financial technology services provided through digital and online at a rate of 0.5% of the value of every transaction.”
Her recommendation angered Speaker Among who tasked her to explain how the proposal found itself in the Committee report yet it wasn’t among the proposals contained in the bill at the time the seven tax bills were considered.
“Can you give me more clarity on how it smuggled itself into the Committee? Did you interact with the stakeholder and which stakeholders did you interact with? I am saying did you interact with the regulator, with bankers association, and regulator meaning Bank of Uganda? Can you delete that, don’t smuggle in things anyhow. It isn’t anything for debate. We are going to investigate anything that hasn’t gone through the Speaker’s office or Parliament, we shall investigate this,” said Among.
