Why Jinja taxi drivers want daily fees reinstated
What you need to know:
- Jinja Municipal Council records indicate that following President Museveni’s directive, the municipality has lost Shs2b in uncollected (taxi) revenue over the last two financial years.
Jinja. Taxi drivers operating in Jinja Municipality have demanded that the daily charges, which were last year abolished by President Museveni be reinstated.
The municipality was charging a daily fee of Shs6,000 per taxi and now drivers want it reinstated in a bid to create sanity in the area.
The chairperson of Jinja Taxi Operators Association, Mr Khalid Muyingo, last week said the daily collections should be reinstated because the drivers have become unruly.
“Jinja Municipal Council abandoned us because it is no longer earning money from us. We were using it as our legal means to arrest disruptive drivers but currently drivers have become unruly, disorderly and are loading from wherever they want,” he said.
Mr Raphael Kalyesubula, a driver on the Jinja-Busia highway, explained that after the abolishment of the daily collection, some drivers started stealing passengers’ luggage.
Mr Meshach Ssekamwa, a driver at the Busia stage, said although the daily charges were too much, they should be reinstated because drivers had some self-control.
“I used to load 10 times a day but because of the drivers that are loading from outside the park, I only load passengers twice. Imagine it is lunch time but since morning, only one taxi has loaded passengers,’’ Mr Ssekamwa lamented.
Mr Denis Kigwe, a taxi driver plying the Jinja-Kamuli route, said taxis that are loading passengers outside the park should be banned.
Mr Moses Bizitu, the speaker Jinja Municipal Council, says currently, they can not manage garbage collection well and contractors are still demanding Shs500m. They also owe Umeme Shs1b.
New fees
“Our biggest source of revenue was from the taxi park from where we collected more Shs80m monthly,” he recalls.
Last week, government reduced taxi fees by almost half and directed that all the money be collected directly by the Uganda Revenue Authority .
Going onwards, the taxi operators will be parting with Shs840,000 per year as tax and Shs580,000 per annum as income tax, grossing to Shs1.4m per year.
