For a long time, Uganda has had an invasion of foreigners fly into the country and claim to be investors. Many have been given huge chunks of land to set up industries, with most of these getting land in places that the National Environment Authority (NEMA) considers natural resources and out of bounds, like swamps.
While all these might seem to be privilages enough for the investors to officially kick-start their projects,the government has on top of that always given these investors a tax exemption of not less than 10 years, as a form of helping the businesses stabilize.
The discussion of how many of these foreigners are REAL investors will be for another day, because we've seen many self-proclaimed investors riding tuku tukus in town and others selling roadside snacks, just like the native Ugandans.
While the issue of tax exemption has been talked about many times by Ugandans, the minister for Finance and Planning Hon. Matia Kasaija seems to think otherwise. In a media brief he gave earlier today, he told Ugandans to stop complaining about these investors being given tax exemptions.
"We need to stop over complaining about the government giving tax exemptions to investors. Let's not forget the benefits Uganda as a country gets when these Investors decide to do business here. The talk of taxing them should be brought after their businesses have stablized fully." said Mr. Kasaija.
One would wonder then, if it is the case that investors and their projects are of huge benefits to us as a nation, why then don't such privileges like tax exemption apply to native investors but instead they're the ones who are taxed highly?
