Now there is this Tax on Mobile Phones of 5,000/= people holding telephones must pay for each handset every year. The government of Uganda already charges 30% tax on every airtime one loads on his or her phone.

The same despotic government charges import duty on very headset that comes into the country. So economic analysts reason that taxing these phones would be like double taxing Ugandans!

Harold Kaijja, an economist in Kampala wonders which economics Ugandan MPs studied. He says that in a country like Uganda where only Ushs3M people use phones and about ush1M load airtime on those phones, people still send as little as ush10,000 on airtel money.

Honestly MPs can not want to tax Ugandan poor phone users. These MPs should ask the network providers why they scraped Service Fee. We still need more people accessing mobile phones to ease communication.

The proposal by the shadow finance minister, Geoffrey Ekanya (FDC Tororo County), has already been endorsed by the Budget Committee of Parliament chaired by Amos Lugoloobi (NRM-Ntenjeru North).

Ends