Health professionals want gov't intervention on taxes

By Juliet Waiswa & Violet Nabatanzi

PRIVATE Health Professionals have asked government to reduce on taxes which they say have affected their health businesses.  

The professionals during the annual general meeting of the Federation for Private Health Professionals (FPHP) at the Hotel Africana on Friday said they are over whelmed by the taxes they pay while importing their equipment they use in their facilities.

FPHP is a body of Private Health professionals, facilities and health services providers and it constitutes four professional bodies of private health facilities, providers, private health professional bodies and private entities and non-government organisations.

“We bring in equipment but we fail to clear the fees at the Airport,” the chairperson of the pharmaceuticals Nazeem Mohamed said 

Mohamed said that they are also charged twice as a professional body. He claimed that they are charged by the National Drug Authority (NDA) and Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA).

Some health care providers also said that they are taxed by the medical councillor in terms of licenses and other body like the Uganda Revenue Authority also taxes them which makes their work difficult.

According to the professionals 60% of patients in the country first call at a private clinic adding that they play a big role in assisting government.

State minister for health Elioda Tumwesigye while officiating at the occasion, told the health workers that they need to keep healthy as professionals in order to stay safe during their daily work.

Tumwesigye told health workers that they should avoid diseases like HIV/AIDS and other non-communicable diseases adding that the country has a small number of health workers and cannot afford to lose any more health professionals.

He also told them to invest in research and local herbs as a way of getting wide knowledge on how to treat people.

He told the health workers that government will intervene to assist them on the importation of equipment which they said is expensive in the market.