Speaker Rebecca Kadaga has distanced herself from claims that taxpayers will pay for legislators’ social media taxes as well as data bundles.
On Wednesday, news broke out that a deal had been reached in which ta Parliament would provide at least 5GB monthly data bundles at Shs30,000 for of the 458 legislators. On top of that, Parliament will also foot the Shs6,000 monthly Over the Top (OTT) tax alias social media tax for the MPs.
The total bill on social media tax and data bundles would come to about Shs197.8m annually. MTN Uganda Limited emerged the best bidder, according to the bid documents displayed on May 2.
On Thursday however, Kadaga said she was not in support the idea of taxpayers footing the bill of OTT tax for Members of Parliament.
“It came to my attention that one MP had told the media that although Parliament’s political leadership was not abreast of current events, an agreement had been reached between MTN and the House’s Contract Committee; that the OTT tax be met by taxpayers!,” Kadaga said in a statement“I would like to reiterate that I am opposed to this arrangement. And if there is any such agreement, it will be looked at it again and corrected. We as MPs should be able to pay our OTT.”
Last year, Parliament approved Shs200 daily as OTT tax to access Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, with several legislators saying it would generate additional income for government.
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