Civil society wants salary review commission

Dec 16, 2016

Members of Parliament have already drafted a bill which is before the president, asking to be exempted from paying taxes claiming they have huge financial burdens from their constituencies.

Civil Society Budget Advocacy Group (CSBAG) is advocating for an establishment of a salary review commission to determine salaries structure of civil servants.  

The current salary structure is demotivating because of the huge disparities in payments.

The call was made by the executive director of CSBAG, Julius Mukunda while meeting editors of different media houses recently.

The meeting was to rally support from media house in the campaign aimed at making MPs pay taxes.

Lawmakers across a usually fractious political divide in April this year passed the Bill and introduced a section that removes their allowances from the tax bracket.

The amendment was proposed by Rubanda County MP, Henry Musasizi. Only 40 MPs were in the House.

Parliament passed the Income Tax (Amendment) Bill 2016 and decided to amend Section 21 (1) of the Income Tax Act, Cap 340, to exempt the employment income of members of Parliament, except salary, a decision that provoked public outrage.

The development came barely two months after Justice Henry Adonyo of the Commercial Court ordered that MPs' allowances, including mileage and constituency allowances, sitting allowances for committee sessions, town running allowances, basic pay and car purchase allowances, among others to be taxed.

To speed up the campaign, Mukunda called upon electorates to task their MPs to explain why they don't want to pay taxes which are needed for the development of the areas.

 

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