KAMPALA – President Museveni has called for the discouragement of tax on production if African is to attain economic growth.
The president was addressing the 4th International Conference on Tax in Africa at Serena Conference Centre under the theme, “Innovation – Digitalization and Harnessing Technology to Improve Tax Systems”.
“To the tax people, the first issue we must resolve is what to tax and why. My advice has always been that we should discourage tax on production if we are to help African economies to grow,” said Museveni.
“Rather than tax a gonja (plantain) seller at the point of selling his bananas, why not wait when he buys beer from gonja proceeds then tax the beer since drinking is a voluntary action?” he added.
Museveni encouraged Uganda Revenue Autharity (URA) to use technology to help map property so that you have proper records, know which are commercial and which are residential. “You can then accurately levy and collect property tax, which people have been evading.”
He said the same technology should be used to monitor what factories are producing in terms of volumes and products, and the imports at border points. With over 40 entry points into the country, the 17 scanners are not sufficient. URA must acquire more gadgets.
Museveni said that those charged with collecting taxes must be people of integrity. “It is not enough to employ people with degrees, they must be people you can trust, people of impeccable integrity.”
