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Let everyone steal from URA
By Simwogerere Kyazze
Justice Julie Sebutinde�s Commission of Inquiry into the Uganda Revenue Authority is clearly the hottest show in town. Incredible grass-to-grace tales have been spurn before the good judge and her probe team that have left all of us gasping. Tales of 30-year olds with turnovers as high as those of medium-size companies like The Monitor Publications Ltd (which employs more than 300 people and pays Shs 3 billion in taxes every year). Tales of businesses and houses which the owners had forgotten about. Tales of young men with personal accounts in excess of Shs 150 million. Tales ofquite frankly, these URA tales have been around since the authority was founded.What has changed then? You really have to na�ve to imagine that URA employees are not tempted when confronted with so much money from importers dying to evade bigger tax burdens. Moreover, even so-called alleged tax-evaders have a serious case against their accusers. Take Karim Hirji, a big-time hotelier and one of the few Ugandans with some serious money. He has been accused of evading Shs 2.4 billion in taxes. But suppose this allegation is proved, so what? Why would a person like Karim want to pay taxes?
He drives around in expensive four-wheel vehicles because roads either don�t exist or are full of potholes. Every time Uganda Electricity Board and its mutations load-shed his part of town, Karim has to have a stand-by generator at his several hotels. He employs private guards while there are policemen on government payroll supposed to keep the peace. In short, Karim Dembe only pays taxes, because he has to, not because he thinks his contribution as a rich man makes any difference. Karim is just as unfortunate as The Monitor for being a high profile big white target. There are many relatively well-off Ugandans who do not pay a penny in taxes besides the unavoidable Graduated Tax of less than Shs 100,000 per head per year. These people are not that bothered about allegations of corruption in high places. Those a re not our taxes, they say. They also do not care about lack of government services. Potholes? They have four-wheels like Karim. Load-shedding? They have generators. Mulago? They are stabilised at Kampala International Hospital, on their way to South Africa. Police? They have Group 4, Securicor, Alarm Protection Services and other private security companies. Taxes? They simply don�t declare their wealth to anyone.
This is the feeling of a lot of people, and brings us back to the Sebutinde Commission.
It�s the considered view of this writer that most Ugandans do not see anything wrong with a 30-year old with just five years� job experience and a salary of less than Shs 1 million owning a Shs 500m house in Naguru. In the villages, such people are lionised for their heroic acts of setting up farms, clinics or maize mills and employing locals who would otherwise be jobless. Many of those who are currently snorting with indignation at �this corruption in government� are simply cursing why they had never thought of a career as a tax collector.
The most stupid thought about these URA riches then, is also the most democratic: we should just ensure that URA employs as many people as there are ethnic groups in Uganda. Sebutinde�s probe has shown us that, excepting the Commissioner General and her two deputies, URA (at least the cash-rich part) is full of people who speak the same language.
If we are serious about income distribution, we would be thinking of employing more Kumam and Bakenyi than Baganda and you know who That way, since most people do not think much of the media�s anti-corruption yelps, at least there would be a beautiful home in every sub-county�even Karamoja. Come to think of it, is there a Karimojong working in URA?
If the URA were to somehow collect all those thousands of millions of shillings that government sets it every year and not a penny was stolen at the collection point, that money would still be stolen anyway. Only this time, there would be one or two big �shop-lifter s�. The kind who have access to the national till. This other way is more democratic.
A democracy that even peasants can understand.
November 06, 2002 01:27:52
Gook
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