Cabinet sitting in Entebbe on Monday has directed the Uganda communication commission, UCC to find means of defeating the virtual private network, VPN.
This was revealed by David Bahati, the state minister for finance and planning during the presentation of cabinet decisions at the Uganda media centre in Kampala this morning.
“We have contacted UCC so that usage of VPNs to access social media is stopped. The other good opportunity we have is that it’s more expensive using VPN than simply playing the social media tax of UGX 200” Bahati revealed.
The infamous tax came into effect on July 1st 2018.
On mobile money tax, Bahati says the same cabinet meeting directed telecommunication companies to tax all mobile money transactions except deposits on customers’ personal accounts.
“The tax point on mobile money is only by licensed operators. Section 13(f) 1% on mobile money transfers states this as a newly introduced excise duty on Mobile money transactions of receiving, payments and withdrawals” he explained.
The minister added that with time, there will be more convenient ways to pay the excise duty amendments for telecommunication 2018/2019.
“We have noted that the social media tax is very inconvenient to pay. There will be better ways to pay the tax in future but service delivery must be financed” Bahati said.