FMU waive competition fees, approve Shs2b budget
No double charges. Ruparelia (R) and General Secretry Laila Mayanja during the FMU Assembly in Kampala on Saturday. PHOTO | JOHN BATANUDDE
What you need to know:
- The next step. Following the motorsport body’s meeting, the executive will meet National Council of Sports today to present a resumption plan and settle the recent feud with the breakaway faction of motorcross.
Rally teams will not be required to pay their annual competition fees whenever motorsport is able to resume following a lengthy lull due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Every driver and co-driver is required to pay Shs100, 000 each in annual competition fees to be issued a licence.
“Since you had paid competition fees last year before Covid-19 struck, the executive proposed that these be suspended for this year,” Allan Rugabo, the Federation of Motorsport Clubs of Uganda (FMU) treasurer, told the Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Kampala on Saturday.
The decision was quickly ratified by delegates.
Last year, the federation collected Shs10.9m from licenses.
In addition, Rugabo told delegates that FMU incomes have plummeted by 70% to the inability to have events for one year now.
Some of the incomes missed include; sponsorships, affiliation fees, entry fees, tax waivers, international grants and sprint fees among others.
Despite all this, FMU passed a Shs2bn budget for 2021 and remain hopeful on resuming all their events in the near-future as the country continues to open up.
FMU president Dipu Ruparelia, elected last February just before Covid-19 struck and the lockdown ensued, told the assembly of the positive steps taken thus far and insisted on having review of the constitution.
“We pledge to start and complete the process of the constitutional review,” Dipu said. “We have had discussions with our regulator National Council of Sports (NCS) and they too agree that we should rewrite our constitution.”
“During this short time, we have entered a memorandum of understanding with Development Infrastructure (DI). They are providing 100% financial backing to develop 30 acres of land in Arua to build a motorsport arena to cater for rallying, motorcross, karting and drifting,” Dipu said of the partnership launched last month.
Following the motorsport body’s meeting, the executive will meet NCS today to present a resumption plan and sort out the recent feud with the breakaway faction of motorcross.
