MP Nsambu clashes with URA over tax

Jun 25, 2004

A row has erupted between Bukoto South Member of Parliament (MP), John Nsambu, and airport customs officials over tax on second hand clothes.<br>

By Mary Karugaba
A row has erupted between Bukoto South Member of Parliament (MP), John Nsambu, and airport customs officials over tax on second hand clothes.
Last month, Nsambu procured over 80 second hand computers worth sh10m from the U.S for schools in Masaka.
At the airport, the revenue officials told the MP to pay tax worth sh500,000 before releasing his consignment.
Nsambu refused to pay the tax on grounds that the second hand clothes would be donated to poor people in Masaka.
The consignment also contained 5kg of toilet paper for U.S students who are in the country for a computer installation project.
“I am surprised to hear that I have to pay extra taxes for the secondhand clothes which were only used to protect computers from damage,” Nsambu said.
He told the officials to release the computers or destroy the clothes since he was not going to sell them.
Nsambu said when he contacted some URA officials, they told him to pay the tax. They said if he failed to pay the tax, they would donate the clothes to the internally displaced persons in Gulu.
When Nsambu went with journalists to collect the computers at the airport, the acting revenue commissioner, F.P Babaranda, who was contacted on phone promised to handle the matter. He ordered Nsambu’s clearing agent, Kenneth Kamuhanda, to get bank slips and pay the tax.
After a quarrel, the principal revenue officer, James Tumwesigye, stormed out of his office and said he was implementing the tax law which the MPs passed.
Nsambu vowed to forward the complaint to Parliament.
The officials also vowed to retain the consignment despite finance state minister Isaac Musumba’s directive that they release the goods.
Ends

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