The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
THIS WEEK: Museveni proposes tax on WhatsApp, Facebook
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | President Museveni has directed the Ministry of Finance to introduce taxes on social media platforms – WhatsApp and Facebook as a way of raising revenue.
In a letter to the Finance Minister, the President expressed concern at what he referred to as lack of seriousness by the Ministry and Uganda Revenue Authority at identifying new tax sources.
“Olugambo (gossip) on social media (opinions, prejudices, insults, friendly chats) and advertisements by Google and I do not know who else must pay tax because we need resources to cope with the consequences of their lugambo”, he noted in the letter arguing that government misses a lot of money in form of taxes when it fails to tax non educational communications on the internet, citing Facebook and Whatsapp as some of the social media platforms from which government can get money.
According to him, if a fee of Shs100 per day is charged on a SIM card that uses these social media platforms, there is potential of collecting up to Shs400billion in revenue every year.
