Mwine Mpaka, a member of the NRM party and son to Minister Bright Rwamirama has voted against his party position to the surprise of fellow parliamentarians.
Mwine Mpaka who is the Western Youth MP voted yes (that the tax should be completely abolished).
MPs are currently voting on the controversial mobile money tax.
President Museveni yesterday summoned NRM MPs to State House for a quick meeting to find a common position on the tax.
The position reached was that the MPs should vote ‘no’ (that the tax shouldn’t be scrapped).
Who is Mwine Mpaka
Mwine 28, is son to Bright Rwamirama, the Minister of State for Veteran Affairs. He replaced Gerald Karunga as Western Region youth MP after a hotly contested race with Amanya Tumukunde, son to former security minister Lt Gen Henry Tumukunde.
About the tax
The tax proposal presented in the Excise Duty Amendment Bill (2018) No. 2 seeks to reduce the current one per cent levy on all mobile money transactions to at least 0.5 per cent in line with President Museveni’s directive in July.
If passed into law, government intends to collect Shs115 billion to fund part of its budget, similar to the same amount targeted with one per cent.
However, the Bill has since attracted protests from a section of MPs who have cited discrimination, lack of equity and clarity of a collection mechanism.
When it was presented last week on Thursday, the mood in the House was tense.
The majority report backed the government’s 0.5 per cent yet the MPs, who signed the minority report, wanted the tax scraped in public interest.
Realising that Mr Paulson Luttamaguzi (Nakaseke South, DP), who presented the minority report, was getting support across the political spectrum, the few Cabinet members in the House decided to filibuster the proceedings.
The situation was saved by Ms Betty Amongi (Oyam, UPC), who cited technicalities premised on the lack of the requisite quorum for the vote to be taken.
The proponents kept demoblising their colleagues, forcing Deputy Speaker Jacob Oulanyah to adjourn the session to today (Tuesday).
It now appears that following intense mobilisation by the government and President Museveni himself, the tax may stay.
By the time our reporter filed this story, 101 MPs had voted against the tax while 136 had voted for it to stay giving the tax a slight advantage.