Makerere University students, vendors task Kadaga to revisit social media and mobile money taxes

Makerere University Guild anda section of mobile-money vendors have petitioned the Speaker of Parliament,

Rebecca Kadaga to intervene and cause the review of the recently passed Excise Duty (Amendment) Act.

The law imposes a one per cent excise duty on Mobile money transactions and shs200 on over the top services on social media.

The students argue that the new social media tax has adversely affected their the convenient for sharing educational materials and opportunities.

“This policy seems to have double or even multiple taxation on it. For instance, when we buy airtime, we are charged 15 per cent indirect tax and then shs200 to access social media,” said Mark Owiny, Justice Minister at the Makerere University Guild.

The groups presented their petitions while meeting the Speaker on Monday, 9 July 2018.

Owiny noted that according to the Act, excise duty on OTT services was supposed to be levied on services that do not include educational services, of which some social media applications sufficed for academic platforms.

He added that the tax was being levied wrongly as per the Amended Excise Duty Act saying, “The Excise Duty (Amendment) Act states that the tax is to be paid by the service provider of the particular commodity, not the consumer of the commodity.”