Airtel Uganda Refunds Taxes Deducted on Mobile Money Deposits
Telecom Company, Airtel Uganda, has started refunding the 1% tax that was deducted from the Mobile money customers. This comes after a directive from the president.
Early this month, the OTT tax was introduced into the country, levied on different Social Media sites, and Mobile money. This received numerous criticism and strikes from different people, and the president of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni made a statement on July 13th, ordering that all Ugandans who paid the 1% per cent mobile money tax should be refunded, as this was passed by parliament, and signed by him in error. In addition to this, the tax was ordered to be reduced to 0.5% and charged only on withdrawals made.
Airtel has stood up to be the first to return this money to people. Their Public relations officer, Sumin Namaganda confirmed that the process started on Saturday, July 28. It is indeed true that many Airtel customers have been receiving messages confirming this refund. However, majority still say that they got the message, but no money was added to their accounts. This needs to be looked into.
