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As the Ugandan government scrambled to play down the storm raised by the introduction of taxes on social media and mobile money, there were contradictory statements by government officials and agencies about how the percentages were arrived at.

Investigations by The EastAfrican reveal that if the Excise Duty (Amendment) Act followed proper procedure, the process would have been clearer.

As it stands, the introduction of the tax has caused confusion, especially over mobile money transactions.

No concrete data was available to assess the impact of the tax on mobile money transactions by the close of the first week. Meanwhile, telcos and large mobile money dealers reported a more than 60 per cent drop in usage.

Photo courtesy of Erik (HASH) Hersman.