Road licence defaulters pardoned

Jun 23, 2007

THE finance ministry has pardoned motorists with unpaid road licence fees.

By Peter Kaujju

THE finance ministry has pardoned motorists with unpaid road licence fees.

Dr. Ezra Suruma last week scrapped the road license levy effective July 1.

The scrapping of the tax was proposed by the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) that cited difficulty in its collection because of multiple forgeries.

It will be replaced by a new fuel tax.

Suruma did not, however, announce the fate of those with accumulated arrears.

It was also not possible to estimate the value of the arrears.

However, URA expected to collect over sh80b from the tax this financial year.

But Patrick Mukiibi, the URA assistant commissioner for public and corporate affairs, disclosed this week that the Finance Bill provided for the waiver.

“It would be very difficult for us to recover the arrears and that is why the Finance Bill waived it,” Mukiibi explained

Confusion still engulfs the public over the new fuel levy.

Several commentators contend that it will greatly affect the local man in terms of increased transport costs.

Meanwhile, the tax body has already started redeploying 44 of its employees who were handling the collection of the tax, sources said.

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