Parliament has directed the Committee on Trade to investigate allegations of tax exemptions given to Vinci Coffee Company Limited, an Italian Company that has been contracted to establish a coffee processing plant at Kampala Industrial and Business Park.

This was after MP Abed Bwanika raised concerns over what he called excessive tax exemptions given to the company by the Ministry of Finance.

According to Bwanika, the company has been exempted from all taxes payable for 10 years. He said in addition the state has donated a parcel of land for construction of the facility which is expected to have a processing capacity of 60,000 tonnes of coffee per year but will start with 27,000 tonnes.

“This company is going to drive our people out of business given the exemptions that government has given to them. They have also given them the monopoly to determine the price of Coffee. Let Parliament investigate this matter,” he said.

Parliament Speaker Anita Among directed the Parliamentary Committee on Trade to investigate the provisions in the agreement and report back to the House. She also asked the Committee on Finance to investigate all the Companies and individuals that have been given tax exemptions and report back.

Its estimated that the investment will not only create job opportunities for the locals, totaling about 246 jobs, but will also enable Uganda to fetch higher prices from the economically important crop on the export market.

Uganda is one of the leading coffee exporters across the region. The East African nation closed the year 2021 on a high as its December export earnings were double compared to the previous year’s corresponding period.

According to the Uganda Coffee Board, the country fetched US$75.25 million in the export of 536,889 60-kilo bags, registering a 100.64% rise in value compared to December 2020.

The exported amount, which is 28.03% more compared to the same month last year, comprised of 452,55 bags of Robusta valued at US$ 55.26 million and 84,301 bags of Arabica valued at US$ 19.99 million.