{"id":3983,"date":"2018-09-04T09:06:05","date_gmt":"2018-09-04T08:06:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/about-us\/regions\/africa\/?p=3983"},"modified":"2018-10-22T11:19:02","modified_gmt":"2018-10-22T10:19:02","slug":"new-taxes-on-mobile-money-and-social-media-usage-in-uganda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/about-us\/regions\/africa\/new-taxes-on-mobile-money-and-social-media-usage-in-uganda\/","title":{"rendered":"New taxes on mobile money and social media usage in Uganda"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In July 2018, the Government of Uganda introduced two new excise tax specifically targeted at mobile services \u2013 a 1% excise tax on all Mobile Money transactions, and a UGX200 (or approx. $0.05) per user per day of access on Over the Top Services (OTTs). The excise duty rate on mobile money services was also increased from 10% to 15%. Following public outcry and pushback from industry, the Government made public comments to clarify that the Mobile Money tax had been \u2018erroneously\u2019 set at 1% and was only intended to apply to withdrawals. A parliamentary process to review the text of the legislation to reflect this and the \u2018correct\u2019 rate of 0.5%.<\/p>\n<p>Since the new taxes were introduced in Uganda, we have seen similar actions proposed by the Governments of Zambia, Benin, with some reference in Tanzania and South Sudan.<br \/>\nResearch ICT Solutions has <a href=\"https:\/\/researchictsolutions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Unleash-not-squeeze-the-ICT-sector-in-Uganda.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">published a paper<\/a> highlighting the implications of the taxes. The GSMA and its local members in Uganda have also delivered written submissions to the Government and the Parliament of Uganda advocating against the new taxes. The GSMA will be working with its members on an Advocacy strategy to speak to this worrying developing trend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In July 2018, the Government of Uganda introduced two new excise tax specifically targeted at mobile services \u2013 a 1% excise tax on all Mobile Money transactions, and a UGX200 (or approx. $0.05) per user per day of access on Over the Top Services (OTTs). The excise duty rate on mobile money services was also [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"algolia_discover_type":[2216],"class_list":["post-3983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","algolia_discover_type-article"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>New taxes on mobile money and social media usage in Uganda - GSMA Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/about-us\/regions\/africa\/new-taxes-on-mobile-money-and-social-media-usage-in-uganda\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"New taxes on mobile money and social media usage in Uganda - GSMA Africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In July 2018, the Government of Uganda introduced two new excise tax specifically targeted at mobile services \u2013 a 1% excise tax on all Mobile Money transactions, and a UGX200 (or approx. $0.05) per user per day of access on Over the Top Services (OTTs). The excise duty rate on mobile money services was also [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/about-us\/regions\/africa\/new-taxes-on-mobile-money-and-social-media-usage-in-uganda\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"GSMA Africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/gsma\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-09-04T08:06:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-10-22T10:19:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"wkaruoya@gsma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@GSMA\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@GSMA\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"wkaruoya@gsma.com\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"New taxes on mobile money and social media usage in Uganda - GSMA Africa","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/about-us\/regions\/africa\/new-taxes-on-mobile-money-and-social-media-usage-in-uganda\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"New taxes on mobile money and social media usage in Uganda - GSMA Africa","og_description":"In July 2018, the Government of Uganda introduced two new excise tax specifically targeted at mobile services \u2013 a 1% excise tax on all Mobile Money transactions, and a UGX200 (or approx. $0.05) per user per day of access on Over the Top Services (OTTs). The excise duty rate on mobile money services was also [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/about-us\/regions\/africa\/new-taxes-on-mobile-money-and-social-media-usage-in-uganda\/","og_site_name":"GSMA Africa","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/gsma\/","article_published_time":"2018-09-04T08:06:05+00:00","article_modified_time":"2018-10-22T10:19:02+00:00","author":"wkaruoya@gsma.com","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@GSMA","twitter_site":"@GSMA","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"wkaruoya@gsma.com","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/about-us\/regions\/africa\/new-taxes-on-mobile-money-and-social-media-usage-in-uganda\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/about-us\/regions\/africa\/new-taxes-on-mobile-money-and-social-media-usage-in-uganda\/"},"author":{"name":"wkaruoya@gsma.com","@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/subsaharanafrica\/#\/schema\/person\/2759521927960b005465fa83fca05182"},"headline":"New taxes on mobile money and social media usage in Uganda","datePublished":"2018-09-04T08:06:05+00:00","dateModified":"2018-10-22T10:19:02+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/about-us\/regions\/africa\/new-taxes-on-mobile-money-and-social-media-usage-in-uganda\/"},"wordCount":201,"articleSection":["News"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/about-us\/regions\/africa\/new-taxes-on-mobile-money-and-social-media-usage-in-uganda\/","url":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/about-us\/regions\/africa\/new-taxes-on-mobile-money-and-social-media-usage-in-uganda\/","name":"New taxes on mobile money and social media usage in Uganda - 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