Taxing Mobile Money a plot to protect banks
By Ritah Kemigisa.
The Civil Society Budget Advocacy Group has labelled the proposed 1% tax on mobile money transactions as a move that seeks to eradicate the service and a plot to protect commercial banks.
Addressing journalists at their secretariat in Ntinda this morning, the group’s Executive Director Julius Mukunda said the tax will hurt the poor and the vulnerable in more than 100 districts of Uganda who do not have access to any bank but use mobile money services for their basic needs.
Mukunda says this is now going to cause a reversal in the gains made in financial inclusion since the increase in sending and receiving money will affect value chains of Agriculture. Access to utilities and services.
He is now recommending government to instead tax interest income on mobile money account balances and for excise duty to be increased from 10% to 17.5%.
