We work hard to fund the national budget. It’s time it also started working hard for us 

Omusajja Omukozi, a 48-year-old mid-level manager, lives with his wife Mukazi Watu and four children in Namugongo, outside Kampala.

He earns Shs15 million per month which, in a country where the median monthly income is less than Shs3 million, is a princely sum.

Of this, the government takes Shs4.9m in income tax and Shs8,333 in local service tax.

Mr Omukozi contributes Shs750,000 to social security leaving him with a net income of Shs9.3m.

On the face of it, it looks decent. At about $2,500 it is close to the $3,261 median take-home in America, the world’s biggest economy.

Look closely, however, and a different picture emerges.

After paying 33 percent in income tax, he also pays 18 percent value added tax on most of the goods and services he consumes. Half of what Mr Omukozi makes is taken in tax.

Sometimes it is higher. When Mr Omukozi imported a 10-year-old Subaru from Japan two years ago, the unit cost him Shs22m, but he paid another Shs24m in import duties, fees and other taxes.

In real terms, Ugandan rates are close to those in rich countries with the highest taxes in the world.

As part of his social contract with the state, Mr Omukozi works hard and pays hard, but he is mostly played.

He does not receive a decent return on his investment in the state. He bought a car because there is no safe and affordable public transport.

Out of his annual take-home income of Shs111m, Mr Omukozi sets aside at least Shs24m in school fees for his children because the public schools are very poor.

Health insurance from his job ensures that his family avoids the nightmare of public hospitals.

But without national health insurance, Mr Omukozi still has to pay out of pocket when his ageing parents and extended family members need healthcare.

When he needed a home for his family, Mr Omukozi considered buying one.

But despite having a ministry in charge of housing, he discovered that the government had not built a single affordable home in years.

A long-term mortgage at an interest rate of 18 percent was simply untenable; he is a worker, but Mr Omukozi did not intend to work for the bank.

So he frittered away what was left of his salary, locking away valuable capital one brick and one scoop of mortar at a time until there was enough house for his family to move into.

Then he had to build a water tank and a power back-up system because the mains supply is unreliable. Dig a septic tank because there is no sewer system.

Build a wall and hire a guard to keep undesirables out because the police are too busy guarding VIPs and spread out too thinly to patrol neighbourhoods.

Mr Omukozi and his neighbours pooled money to patch up the roads because the local authority had no money.

There is no local park or library, no pedestrian footpaths, no cycle lanes, no garbage bins, no streetlights. If the community won’t do it, it won’t be done. Wasdis?

There are two flaws here. First, the economy does not have enough Omukozis to tax. Unemployment is high and wages are low. So the few are overtaxed to cover for the many.

Second, Mr Omukozi’s tax bill of Shs4.9m goes to the centre where a lot of it is blown in a bloated government and wasteful expenditures like fancy cars, special meals, first class air-tickets, and patronage handouts.

Mr Omukozi’s local council gets Shs25,000. Per year.

We must urgently, and as a matter of national importance, reduce the tax paid to the central government and channel it to local councils.

If just five percent of Mr Omukozi’s taxes went to his local authority – Shs2.9m instead of Shs25,000 per year – it would deliver more tangible services or political consequences.

It would also unlock economic value. With more disposable income, Mr Omukozi could afford to eat out, go on holidays or take his kids to the cinema, helping to create jobs and expand the tax collections.

As it is, he is constantly worried about money, prickly and irascible around his family when broke – despite working hard and being relatively well paid – because he is constantly trying to balance the domestic budget in his head.

The national budget is funded by workers like Mr Omukozi. It is high time it starts working more for them. #OurMoney!

Mr Daniel K. Kalinaki is a journalist and  poor man’s freedom fighter. 
[email protected]; @Kalinaki