Investors to get 10-year tax holiday

By Nathan Etengu

THE Government has prepared a cabinet paper that seeks to grant a 10-year-taxholiday to all investors. President Yoweri Museveni said the holiday would benefit both small and large-scale investors.

Opening the 5th eastern region trade fair in Mbale on Friday, Museveni said they would also stop the withholding tax, stamp duty, VAT and import duty on raw materials and plant machinery.
“We shall have duty-free importation for essential machinery used in the flower sector.”

Museveni said the Government would open roads within the flower gardens and provide water to the flower industries. “If some one came here to produce flowers, why burden him or her with the responsibility of opening roads in the gardens? That is the responsibility of the Government and the ministry of works.”

He promised storage facilities for exporters at the airport. He also disclosed that pioneer investors and those in technology would be given other incentives to enable them build capacity.

“This atmosphere will improve more, so that it is easy for you to make money, create jobs, export more and even pay more taxes,” Museveni said.

He assured the Uganda Manufacturer’s Association (UMA) that the controversial Lugogo sports ground land would not be sold. “Nobody will take that land from you.”

“The future of the Uganda’s international trade fair is directly related to the availability of good and convenient parking facilities for its local and foreign exhibitors. Without this space, UMA will not be able to hold the fair,” UMA chairman James Kalibbala noted.

Museveni promised to deal with producers of counterfeit goods. “Whoever is caught with counter-fait goods should pay thrice the cost of the goods.”

He appealed to the manufacturers to relate to the postcolonial African artisan culture that enabled the community to survive on what they produced.

“It is a shame for Ugandans to wear shoes manufactured in Italy and drink milk from Denmark, yet the Banyankole have kept cows for the last 7,000 years.”
“We used to make our own shoes, brew our own beer, make our own tools and even wooden plates,” he added.

He noted that the construction of Bujagali power station and another at Karuma would enable the community to modernise their manufacturing sector.

Kalibbala said trade fairs attract business and investments in the area. “Regional fairs have become part of the national calendar and they continue to grow.”

State minister for industry Prof. Ephraim Kamuntu said industrialisation was a key factor in the implementation of the transformation of Uganda’s economy.