Potholes: Traders threaten to stop paying KCCA taxes

Traders under their umbrella body Kampala City Traders Association (Kacita) have threatened to stop paying trade licences to Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA), should they fail to urgently fix potholes that have become a pain in the neck for motorists.

Mr Thadeus Musoke, the chairperson of Kacita, yesterday reasoned that traders pay a lot of taxes to KCCA but they don’t in turn get services, citing potholes that have worsened traffic jam and slowed down business.

“If KCCA doesn’t change its ways of operation and the government also fails to listen to our cry, we will mobilise traders and instruct them not to pay trading licences because we are not seeing value for money,” Mr Musoke said.

He added: “We have engaged them on several occasions but the speed at which they operate affects our work.”

Clients’ puzzle

Mr Musoke said they incur a lot of costs in trading licences, with some going for Shs260,000 yet the poor road network has locked out many would-be clients.

Going forward, the traders have tasked KCCA to work on the roads with immediate effect and also become more effective and efficient.

Mr Musoke noted that it is estimated that the business community loses about Shs2.9 trillion annually in vehicle maintenance, operation delays, and business lost due to the poor state of roads in the city.

Probe
The traders also want KCCA to be investigated on grounds that the Authority received Shs26b but nothing much has been done out of the said money towards improving the road network in the city.

Kacita spokesperson Issa Sekito called upon officials at City Hall to resign if they are not competent enough to address their pressing needs.