Museveni proposes tax exemption for Health Workers
The proposed review comes amid growing concern over the increasing number of doctors and other health professionals graduating from Ugandan institutions without corresponding opportunities for employment in government facilities.
Health Minister Dr Chris Baryomunsi addresses Parliament on Tuesday, August 18, 2026, saying President Yoweri Museveni gave guidance during Monday’s Cabinet discussion on medical internship facilitation. (Credit: X/@Parliament_Ug)
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President Yoweri Museveni has directed the Government to explore exempting health workers from paying tax on their salaries.
Health Minister Dr Chris Baryomunsi told Parliament on Tuesday morning during plenary that the President’s guidance was during Cabinet discussion on the issue of medical Internship facilitation on Monday. His statement was met with applause from Members of Parliament. Tax levied on workers' salaries is termed as Pay as You Earn.
Baryomunsi said President Museveni had guided that health workers should not be subjected to taxation in the same manner as other public servants, citing the treatment accorded to members of the armed forces.
“The President is of the view and has guided that we should not subject the pay of medical workers to tax the way it is done to the soldiers and other armed forces,” Baryomunsi said.
“I have been given six months, but I intend to have this paper ready within two months because we have very efficient officers at the ministry of health,” he said.
The Minister, however, said the Government would undertake a wider review of the health workforce, including the question of how health workers are remunerated.
He said Cabinet had directed the Ministry of Health to prepare a comprehensive paper addressing the country’s health workforce challenges, including recruitment, remuneration and absorption of medical graduates into the public health system.
The proposed review comes amid growing concern over the increasing number of doctors and other health professionals graduating from Ugandan institutions without corresponding opportunities for employment in government facilities.
Baryomunsi said government must establish how many health professionals the country needs to train, how graduates can be absorbed into the health system and what remuneration should be provided once they enter service.
However, he said the issue of facilitation has now been resolved with Cabinet recommending that the new facilitation arrangement for the current cohort of medical interns be suspended following consultations with stakeholders, Cabinet and President Museveni.
Under the suspended policy, government-sponsored and privately sponsored medical interns were to receive different forms of facilitation.
The Government would continue directly facilitating its sponsored interns, while privately sponsored interns would largely meet their own costs, with Government providing only meals valued at sh483,334 per month.
Baryomunsi said cabinet had instead resolved that all interns in the current cohort would receive the same monthly facilitation of sSh1.2 million, subject to taxation, leaving them with approximately sh1 million after deductions.
“When members of Parliament asked me about this matter, I told them that I had no authority to review a policy that was passed by Cabinet. So, after wider consultations, Cabinet yesterday agreed that we suspend the new provision on facilitation and pay all the interns the same amount, whether government or privately sponsored, but subject to tax,” Baryomunsi said.