Jinja residents refuse to pay tax

By Godfrey Kagoda RESIDENTS of Mafubira sub-county in Jinja district have refused to pay graduated tax. They said president Yoweri Museveni exempted them from paying graduated tax in the presidential campaigns. The chief administrative officer, Tomasi Musumba, last week said an attempt to crack down on defaulters had failed. He said most people wanted to pay sh3,000, the minimal tax for beginners and those below the poverty line. “Whenever we approach defaulters, they say Museveni exempted them from paying tax because they are poor. There is no method we can use to force them pay,” Musumba said. He said he would abandon the exercise of hunting for defaulters because the costs involved were higher than the benefits. “This exercise has cost us sh150,000 but at the end we only collected sh130,000 as graduated tax,” Musumba said. He said trading licenses which were a revenue source for the sub-county had brought in little money due to the poor performance of shops. Musumba appealed to the Government to advise them on tax collection.