RE: ugnet_: Govt to tax Television Sets! - desperation!!!

[Rehema Mukooza]

Ed:

 

I don't care if this is the re-introduction of TV tax or not.  What I'm saying is that Ugandans should not accept such kinds of legal robbery.  $0.42 a year, $4.20 in 10yrs is not acceptable on Ugandan soil as TV tax!  Yes, Ugandans are very "poor" even if they own TV sets.  Owning a TV set does not mean one is rich!

 

I don't know if you really spent time listening to what you've just said.  You said that dumpsters were full of TV sets because people used to throw them away!   And you've said that such tax can be used to improve telecommunication??  What telecommunication improvement will that be when people can not afford to watch a TV in their home??  As far as I know, the inventions and improvements in the telecommunications areas have not come along due to taxation.

 

Mr. Ed Kironde, as a presidential aspirant, I find is uneasy to hear you support an increase in taxation in Uganda when you know the economy is not good.  How can you compare the British economy to our Ugandan economy.  You see that is the problem I have with folks in Uganda.  Anything from the Western part of the world, they accept without any questioning.  Whether it is good or bad for us, our leaders don't care.  They are still trapped in the colonial mentality of copying anything Western or British.

 

With such silly and senseless TV tax in Britain, no wonder the British economy is not as good as the American economy.  No wonder there is limited to no opportunities in that country!  Such characteristics of over taxation are not good for any kind of economy, the Britons better get sense on that one.

 

Lastly, I don't know how the government can use TV tax to improve the television industry in a capital economy where TV stations and manifacturers are privately owned.  The only TV station this Ugandan TV tax would help is maybe the government-owned UTV station.  The govt has even failed to run Radio Uganda and UTV, how do you expect it to run the whole Ugandan telecommunications.  You must be joking, Ed! 

 

We are in a capital, free economy, unlike the British command economy.  To hell with the former imperial power, even the USA proclaimed its independence and runs its economy according to its rules and not British rules.  Lesaz Faire ~ the govt should stay out of privately owned businesses' business.  Period, the govt should not run any businesses, It should stick its nose to only governing the country.  The people can effectively handle telecommunication improvements and busineses.  The govt should be strictly limited to regulating airwaves, but certainly not how to run TV stations.

 

Zakoomu R.

Ed Kironde <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

Rehema

This is not the introduction of TV tax in Uganda; it is the re-introduction of TV tax.  People had simply refused to pay it and it faded under the carpet. $0.42 a year, that is it about.  With everything constant, in 10 years, �poor� Ugandans who own TV sets will have paid a $4.20 for each set.

 

We used to pay �80 in England annually for TV tax and warned visitors who had just come from Uganda not to open doors to �strangers� (tax agents) when such licenses had expired and pending renewals. That was per household, but if you sh ared an apartment (flat) with another person not related to you, TV tax will be twice as much.

 

If you kept your 99.99 pound TV in UK for ten years, you will have spent another 800 pounds on it for TV tax.  Dumpsters were full of these box TV sets.  Britons protested the tax and some were willing to go to jail for it.

I have no quarrel with this TV tax as long as the government uses it to improve the Television industry in Uganda or put the tax to some good cause.  I do not think that there are many TV sets in Uganda and given the amount of TV tax, nothing major will come out of it to do any telecommunication improvement.

bvbbv

 

-----Original Message-----
Ffrom: owner-[EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:owner-[EMAIL PROTECTED]] On Behalf Of Rehema Mukooza
Svent: Thursday, February 19, 2004 12:32 PM
To:v [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: ugnet_: Govt to tax Television Sets! - desperation!!!

 

This is the most desperate tax the govt of Uganda has ever introduced!!  How can they tax poor Ugandans for owning a TV for UgShs 10,000/=??   Our country will never develop!!  Are they taxing Ugandans for recieving information off a TV or what??  This is the most stupid thing I've heard.  a TV tax???!!!!!!!!!

 

Govt to tax Television Sets


A levy of 10,000 shillings has been re-introduced for each owner of a television set.

According to the Minister of Information Dr. Nsaba Buturo(right), the license fee to be paid annually takes effect August this year.

The minister adds that the fee will be collected at the time of purchase and subsequently from homes.

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