Parliament on 30th May passed the controversial Excise Duty (Amendment) Act, 2018, with amendments to impose a mandatory Shs200 daily on social media platforms such as Facebook, WhatsApp, LinkedIn, Instagram, Viber, and Skype among others.
The law was not implemented till the night that gave way to 31 July, where 2.6 million active mobile Social Media users in country woke up only to find that they could not login into their social media accounts.
Navigating social media pages of some of the Churches that live stream their Sunday services, maintain a Facebook community, or host a podcast, UG Christian News identified a drop in active viewers and engagements compared to former days.
Although this website could not detail the fall in views by figure, it was whoever noted that engaging viewers lamented the imposed tax, as others offered fellows Virtual Private Network (VPN) alternatives.
According to findings by a local news daily, 19 percent of 581 followers who responded to how prepared they are to pay the social media tax said they will spend less time on social media.
11 percent said they would stop using social media while 70 percent said they would resort to using Virtual Private Network (VPN).
“Double taxation of goods and services is just evil and satanic,” gospel artiste Holy Keane wrote.
When the Excise Duty (Amendment) Act, 2018 was tabled before parliament, youthful MPs argued that since WhatsApp is accessed through already taxed airtime, another levy would be an infringement on the users’ rights.
In his letter directing the Uganda Revenue Authority and Ministry of Finance to tax social media, President Museveni was quoted as saying that most Ugandans using social are rumour mongers. He, however, promised to exempt those using it for educational purposes. But critics question how he will determine those using it for educational purposes.
