Kadaga defends OTT termination for MPs
Speaker Rebecca Kadaga chairing one of the plenary sessions recently. File Photo/David Lubowa
PARLIAMENT- The Speaker of Parliament yesterday defended the termination of MTN Uganda contract, which had initially sought to compel taxpayers to foot Over The Top tax (OTT) for Members of Parliament (MPs).
Ms Rebecca Kadaga was addressing Parliament during the afternoon sitting. She said the contract for MTN to pass OTT tax to the public had been terminated to save taxpayers extra burden.
“I want to re-affirm that OTT will not be paid for by the government. You will pay it yourselves and I have asked the clerk [Ms Jane Kibirige] to cancel that part of the contract,” she said.
This is the first public announcement by the Speaker to MPs after she made the commitment two months ago.
The announcement of the contract in April for Ugandans to pay OTT tax for MPs triggered public outrage but in May, the Speaker shot down the proposal.
“I don’t agree with that decision and I am going to investigate who took that decision and if there is a contract, we will have to scrutinise it because I don’t believe taxpayers should pay MPs’ taxes. That is our duty because we are carrying out our duties,” she said at the time.
During the sitting yesterday, Ms Kadaga reiterated that there will be no such payment and that a directive had been made to the clerk.
“I told her to cancel it because it was there. We shall have to pay our own OTT tax,” Ms Kadaga said.
Government introduced the tax on social media in 2018.
Users are supposed to pay Shs200 daily to access social media platforms.
Critics have drawn conclusions that the tax is aimed at gagging freedom of new media users. For the financial year 2019/2020, the government targets to collect up to Shs53b from OTT tax.
