More shops closed in Masaka as traders protest URA tax system

A section of traders in Masaka City who had earlier shunned the ongoing protest against Uganda Revenue Authority’s (URA)’s Electronic Fiscal Receipting and Invoicing Solution (EFRIS) have joined the demonstration.
Shops in Masaka’s Kikuubo lane, which is among the busiest business hubs in the city, Jathebai Street, Kabaka Mutebi II Street remained closed on Thursday.

Other streets that have a concentration of major wholesale businesses and agriculture inputs like Buddu Horbert and Elgin, shops also had shops closed. However, many retail shops on many streets remained open.
Mr Ali Pio Mukasa, a representative of Kikuubo traders to Masaka City Traders Association, an umbrella body of businessmen in Masaka City, said they did not join the protest on the first day on Monday because they were informed on short notice.

“We were informed [about the protest]on short notice yet we had to serve our Muslim clients who were preparing for Idd-ul-fitr , we have now joined the strike which will  go on until the government addresses our demands as traders ,” he said.

With the ongoing protest which started in Kampala on Monday and in Masaka on Tuesday, traders want to draw the attention of President Museveni on a number of issues affecting their businesses, including, among others complaints about Chinese investors who directly take goods to final consumers and the controversial Efris.
The purported meeting with President Msueveni was reportedly scheduled to take place at Kololo Airstrip in Kampala tomorrow.

But a statement issued by the Presidential Press Unit (PPU) on April 10 , 2024, disregarded information circulating on social media  about a scheduled meeting between Mr Museveni  and  the striking traders.
‘’ The PPU wishes to clarify that the information is untrue, if a meeting with traders is indeed planned, all relevant stakeholders will be informed’’ the statement reads in part.

Traders are opposed to implementation of EFRIS which tracks payment of Value Added Tax. URA introduced Efris in 2019 to integrate their system with that of the business community to enable them to have accurate figures of sales and the taxes collected upon the transaction .In  2022 , URA started enforcing Efris in big companies and supermarkets . Later, they included all businesses with annual gross sales of Shs150m and above. That means a business that makes sales of Shs410, 000 per day is a VAT payer.

But when URA embarked on implementing EFRIS in Kampala’s Kikuubo business hub  and the city centre, the traders demanded to be educated first which URA says it did. Despite the sensitisation, traders say EFRIS isn’t good for their businesses and also accuse URA enforcement teams of enforcing it in a cruel manner that is chasing away their customers.

URA officials have since maintained that they have no intention of halting EFRIS implementation because it has brought transparency in the tax system and led to the widening of the tax base .