Members of Parliament who voted to maintain the proposed Mobile Money tax will pocket at least Shs15 million as allegedly agreed during a meeting with President Museveni on Monday.
It has emerged that during the impromptu meeting with the president, the legislators were promised the cash token to vote “No” opposing the scrapping off of 0.5%.
At least 164 MPs agreed to maintain the levy on mobile money while 124 voted to have it scrapped. A total of 288 legislators were present and voted.
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.
Now that the tax has been passed following intense mobilization, government intends to collect Shs115 billion to fund part of its budget, similar to the same amount targeted with one per cent.
