The tax, Dr Serwadda said, should instead be imposed on waragi, bar owners
He was speaking to multitudes who attended Easter Prayers at Victory Christian Centre on Sunday.
Local media reported earlier this week that the government dumped new taxes on social media platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Skype, Twitter and Viber to stop what the President described as ‘lugambo’, a luganda word to mean gossip.
“I am not going to propose a tax on internet use for educational, research or reference purposes… these must remain free. However, olugambo on social media (opinions, prejudices, insults, friendly chats) and advertisements by Google and I do not know who else must pay tax because we need resources to cope with the consequences of their lugambo,” Mr Museveni was quoted as writing in a letter to the ministry of finance.
Adding: “If we were to introduce a small fee of Uganda Shs100 per day from sim-cards that are used by these “over-the-top” platforms (OTTs), that would generate about Shs400 billion additional revenue.”
Bishop John Baptist Kaggwa while speaking to journalists also decried increased taxation which he said is scaring and demotivating a number of businessmen and women in Uganda.
“When you visit the Mutukula Border you find that a lot people’s of merchandise have been confiscated by the Uganda revenue authority for failure to pay the required taxes. These poor businessmen end up in loses,” Bishop Kaggwa said.
The same proposed taxes were scorned by Human rights defenders and Opposition leaders who described them as “burdensome, diversionary, deceptive and injurious to individual freedoms.”
Meanwhile, Dr Serwadda said to Christianity, Easter is the most important season of the year.
“The master of our faith. The author and finisher of our faith conquered death and put it to nothing,” he said.
editor@ugchristiannews.com
