By George Bukenya
Business in Kikuubo shopping Centre is paralyzed due to closure of shops and arcades by traders as a way of compelling government to listen to their voices asking her to reduce on the taxes and also review on some of the taxing systems of some tax regimes.
Uganda Revenue authority and ministry of finance officials have so far met the traders twice in a space of one months in trying to look for a workable solution but it seems what they discussed have not materialized and this have compelled the traders to close their shops.
By press time other shops on other Kampala sheets were open this shows lack of Unity among the traders in Kampala and it’s an indication that the strike may not succeed.
The traders say that they have totally failed to understand this system and URA’s implementers make them to pay excessive penalties because of failure to meet their tax obligation on time using such a system and this has significantly negatively affected on their business capital.
Kampala Central Mayor also backed the traders cause, saying things in trade is not moving on well. He also said that taxes are too high and they are forcing dealers out of business, enforcement team is also miss handling traders while enforcing compliance.
He called on president Museveni to consider the traders outcry because they contribute very much to the running of the government and that government will not start begging when it has an ideal tax base which is being mishandled.
KACITA spokesperson Isa Ssekito told the commissioner general that traders are requesting government to first put to a halt on the EFRIS tax collection system and embark on the sensitization of traders and also equip the officials who enforce it with sufficient skills because they also don’t understand it well.
He said that he is educated well and he has been engaged is three workshops organized by URA but still has very little known regarding such a system of collection.
“I want to report to you that the EFRIS system is fueling corruption tendencies by your officials thus encumbering better tax collections. This very week one of our members called when your officials had confiscated just one box of merchandize asking of EFRIS document even when he showed them a carbon copy and the shop from where he had purchased it the instead asked for ‘Kintu kidogo’ .’’ Ssekito explained in a recent meeting that was convened at Lugogo UMA show grounds.
He also said that another member had a box of merchandize which hadn’t been invoiced for EFRIS and was given a penalty of UGX 8M ordered to pay within only five days and all his accounts in business name were put on agency notice just after three days they wrote to all his suppliers telling them that they shouldn’t supply to him because URA was demand taxes, they also went ahead to freeze his accounts.
Ssekito also to the commissioner that the tax charged per kilogram on garments also pinches the traders so much because collectors many times don’t discriminate for tops of certain fashions of clothes. He gave a list of items of garments that they want URA to remove from this system and these include; T-shirts, sweaters and top among others.