Masaka City starts levying park fees
Motorists drive on a junction between Elgin Street and Kampala Road in Masaka City. Authorities will start charging park user fees from Passenger Service Vehicles in the city next month. PHOTO | MALIK FAHAD JJINGO
What you need to know:
- Saloon cars carrying between seven and 20 passengers will pay Shs720,000 annually, commuter taxis, Shs840,000, while coaster buses and buses with sitting capacity of over 60 passengers will pay Shs2.5m.
Authorities in Masaka City will start charging park user fees from Passenger Service Vehicles operating in the city effective next month.
Mr Joseph Mugerwa, the Masaka City commercial officer, said the proposed fees are contained in a statutory instrument issued by the Local Government minister, Mr Raphael Magyezi, in 2020.
Mr Mugerwa said saloon cars carrying between seven and 20 passengers will pay Shs720,000 annually, commuter taxis, Shs840,000, while coaster buses and buses with sitting capacity of over 60 passengers will pay Shs2.5m.
“We have finished sensitising public transport operators and the next step is to start levying the new tax. Other urban centres have already started collecting park user fees, but for us, we delayed, which has affected our revenue base,” he said on Saturday.
He asked taxi operators, who could have registered in Kampala, but also operate in Masaka to consider registering and paying the tax in Masaka because the city will be getting 65 percent of the collected revenue.
When Masaka City authorities were still collecting revenue from public transport operators five years ago, Mr Mugerwa said they used to generate more than Shs835 million every year to finance their budget.
Some taxi operators, however, say the taxes are high. They are wondering how the city authorities arrived at the rates without involving them.
“We have been told that the law governing park user fees has several punishments, including imprisonment, we wonder who will be imprisoned, the driver or the owner of the vehicle because most of the things that we use ranging from tyres to PSV Licence are paid by the bosses since many drivers do not own vehicles,” Mr Joseph Lubulwa, a taxi driver in Masaka, said.
Masaka City mayor Florence Namayanja asked the taxi operators to cooperate.
“The park user fees will improve service delivery,” she said.
In some cities such as Kampala where the same fees have been enforced, public transport operators are still reluctant to meet their obligation, claiming the charges are exorbitant.
According to the Local Governments (Amendment of Fifth Schedule) Statutory Instrument, 2020, the park user fees are supposed to be collected by Uganda Revenue Authority and remitted to the Consolidated Fund.
In accordance with the Public Finance Management Act, 2015, the accountant general is mandated to allocate the park user fees paid in respect of each taxicab, light omnibus, and medium omnibus or heavy omnibus to a district, urban authority or Kampala Capital City where it operates, on a monthly basis.
