SEATINI, OXFAM and Partners Reconvene to consolidate Position on Tax Laws for FY 2022/23
SEATINI Uganda in partnership with Oxfam in Uganda, FEMNET, and Diakonia held a one-day meeting on the 14th of April 2022. The purpose of the meeting was to further analyse and consolidate proposals from the recent Tax Justice Alliance Uganda retreat which occurred on the 6th and 7th of April 2022.
Among the attendees was the Executive Director of SEATINI Uganda Ms. Jane Nalunga. As part of her remarks, she noted that since increasing the rations of pulp in fruit juice would make it too expensive, there is a need to support local producers of fruit juice to take up the available produce in the country.
She further notedthat local non-profit organisations are subjected to mandatory Income Tax yet these laws are waived for some international organisations. With the dwindling donor funding, the work of Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) becomes more cumbersome due to operational taxes involved in running these NGOs.
Mr Mark Mutumba, the Project Assistant, Fiscal Justice at Oxfam in Uganda, highlighted the need to amend the enguli (Manufacture and Licensing) Act which was enacted in 1986 to reflect the current alcohol use environment of Uganda. He added that the law should promote the industrial manufacture of local brews. This will help to protect consumers from alcohol whose production is unsupervised and could cause major health hazards to citizens.
Mr David Kizito, the Program Officer atTransparency International Uganda proposed the need for an environmental levy on non-biodegradable packaging material. “The money collected from taxing this non-biodegradable packaging should be invested in environmental protection and management”, he reiterated.
Upon its development, the CSO Position on the Tax Amendment Bills for FY 2022/23 will be submitted to the Parliamentary Committee on Finance, Planning, and Economic Development for consideration.
