Uganda’s Finance ministry has tabled an annual license fee of Shs 200.000 to car owners and She 50.000 to motorcycle owners as part of the revenue sources to support the 2021/2022 budget.
While appearing before the uganda’s parliament’s fiance committee, headed by Hon. Henry Musasizi, State minister of Finance David Bahati, reported that the proposal is intended to streamline the transport sector by getting rid of unauthorized cars and to collect funds for the maintenance of roads across the country.
This law is embedded in the Traffic and Road Safety Act Amendment Bill, 2021 which seeks to impose a license to permit ownership of a motor vehicle, trailer or engineering plant.
Nandala Mafabi, the Budadiri West MP says this could increase the rate of corruption where motorists would be paying less money to the officers so as to obtain the licences.
Committee chairperson Musasizi asked why the government insists on imposing direct taxes that are hard to implement and also questioned how owners of vehicles parked at home will be charged yet their cars are not on road.
“if we introduce this, we shall have roadworthy vehicles on the road and at the same time try to generate revenue to maintain our roads.” said State minister.
The government has projected to raise revenue to a tune of Shs 22.408 trillion with tax measures alone raising Shs 400.93 billion for the financial year 2020/21.
If passed, the proposal will come into implementation on July 1, 2021, anyone who fails to pay for the road licence could be jailed for two years, pay a fine of Shs 2 million or face both jail and fine.