Airtime Levy Tops Sh10b
Feb 05, 2003
GOVERNMENT’S introduction of an excise duty on airtime in the 2001/02 financial year, reaped sh10.15b by June 2002, Christopher Kawesa, the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) spokesman told The New Vision recently.
By Raymond Mikah
GOVERNMENT’S introduction of an excise duty on airtime in the 2001/02 financial year, reaped sh10.15b by June 2002, Christopher Kawesa, the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) spokesman told The New Vision recently.
Kawesa said the projected estimates for 2002/03 is at shs10.41b and URA has already collected sh6.26b between July and December last year.
“This is a very good source of revenue for government. It’s doing very well if you measure it against our targets. Its above our projections, and we expect it grow in further in future,†Kawesa said.
The introduction of the tax at the time caused a lot of resentment from the mobile phone operators, because they were not consulted. companies saying tax will affect their their growth and expansion programs.
Aldrine Nsubuga of uganda telecom (pictured) said the 7% tax had not affected their growth in terms of numbers connecting to their Mango network, but on the way people used airtime.
“People are now more controlled in the way they use airtime today due to effect on the tax. Of course this has a negative bearing on our income,â€Nsubuga told The New Vision.
MTN Uganda spokesman, Philip Besimire, said they had not yet looked at their analysis to find out the impact of the tax. Ends
GOVERNMENT’S introduction of an excise duty on airtime in the 2001/02 financial year, reaped sh10.15b by June 2002, Christopher Kawesa, the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) spokesman told The New Vision recently.
Kawesa said the projected estimates for 2002/03 is at shs10.41b and URA has already collected sh6.26b between July and December last year.
“This is a very good source of revenue for government. It’s doing very well if you measure it against our targets. Its above our projections, and we expect it grow in further in future,†Kawesa said.
The introduction of the tax at the time caused a lot of resentment from the mobile phone operators, because they were not consulted. companies saying tax will affect their their growth and expansion programs.
Aldrine Nsubuga of uganda telecom (pictured) said the 7% tax had not affected their growth in terms of numbers connecting to their Mango network, but on the way people used airtime.
“People are now more controlled in the way they use airtime today due to effect on the tax. Of course this has a negative bearing on our income,â€Nsubuga told The New Vision.
MTN Uganda spokesman, Philip Besimire, said they had not yet looked at their analysis to find out the impact of the tax. Ends