As the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) struggles to widen the tax base and increase revenues, Speaker Anita Among has given them a suggestion: “Put a tax on cattle.”
In a plenary sitting to debate the grievances of the striking city traders, Among said URA had squeezed formal businesses for taxes while ignoring informal ones.
Giving herself as an example, she claimed she owns 2,000 cows yet the taxman does not take anything from her.
“Are cows taxed? Yes, it’s an informal sector but when we talk about widening the tax base then go for the cows. I have over 2,000 cows but nobody charges me tax. Nobody even wants to know how much I get out of it. Let’s widen the tax base instead of making the traders suffer. People have so many cows,” she said.
The suggestion is likely to spark controversy given that many senior government officials, including President Museveni, own a lot of cattle.
Museveni has in the past been vocal against taxing agricultural and animal produce arguing the Uganda is still a peasant country where many people survive through farming.
For the past five days, traders in Kampala and other towns have closed their shops, protesting unfair taxes and the introduction of the Electronic Fiscal Receipting and Invoicing Solutions (EFRIS) by URA to collect VAT.
