Jul 13, 2026 · 43 min · 10 segments
Send us Fan Mail Uganda's 83 trilllion shillings Budget read in June is often the start of an economic cycle in which government dictates it's most…
Okot, as someone coming from a ministry that supervises the tax collector, which is Uganda Revenue Authority, you'll hear it several, not necessarily only in this room, but you've been told of the mortality rate of especially young businesses in Uganda that are in the space of innovation, creativity, and all that.
And largely, many of them die under the sword of, you know, high taxation.
Or there being no incentive on especially inputs that maybe make them a lot cheaper or at least not prohibitively expensive for them to come on board.
When you look at your taxation regime, now we've moved away from budgeting, but now let's look at the taxation.
When someone has a startup and all that, is there a thought around the fact that possibly they need, should I call it tax holiday? 'Cause that's what we're used to hearing.
But, you know, some kind of relief that allows them to sandbox, incubate, and go on for some time, so that then they're able to have their feet and then give back to the country through taxation.
We are concerned about the mortality of businesses, and w- it's important that government is not constraining business growth.
Mm-hmm.
As far as the startup community is concerned, for example, the elevation of the VAT threshold is one example where we are moving it upwards.
So it reduces their compliance costs, it reduces their direct, uh, business costs that they're going to spend to comply.
Um, it makes it easier for them to mature before they can enter a tax regime that is much higher.
But also, of course, sometimes people contest the reasons for business failure.
But I still, I take your point in, in, in, in, in the sense that taxation should be facilitating business growth.
But the people in tax will always tell you that their primary objective, of course, is mobilizing revenue.
Mm-hmm.
And that's why government has counterbalance approaches through provision of these growth funds, provision of this infrastructure that she's talking about, incubation, and so on and so forth, so that the tax is not necessarily on its own prohibitive enough that it can collapse your entire enterprise.
Of course, many times when we hear the-
Le- let me first give him the softer one so that he can-
... do the pushups for the big one, if you don't mind, Raymond.
Okot, as someone coming from a ministry that supervises the tax collector, which is Uganda Revenue Authority, you'll hear it several, not necessarily only in this room, but you've been told of the mortality rate of especially young businesses in Uganda that are in the space of innovation, creativity, and all that.
And largely, many of them die under the sword of, you know, high taxation.
Or there being no incentive on especially inputs that maybe make them a lot cheaper or at least not prohibitively expensive for them to come on board.
When you look at your taxation regime, now we've moved away from budgeting, but now let's look at the taxation.
When someone has a startup and all that, is there a thought around the fact that possibly they need, should I call it tax holiday? 'Cause that's what we're used to hearing.
But, you know, some kind of relief that allows them to sandbox, incubate, and go on for some time, so that then they're able to have their feet and then give back to the country through taxation.
We are concerned about the mortality of businesses, and w- it's important that government is not constraining business growth.
Mm-hmm.
As far as the startup community is concerned, for example, the elevation of the VAT threshold is one example where we are moving it upwards.
So it reduces their compliance costs, it reduces their direct, uh, business costs that they're going to spend to comply.
Um, it makes it easier for them to mature before they can enter a tax regime that is much higher.
But also, of course, sometimes people contest the reasons for business failure.
But I still, I take your point in, in, in, in, in the sense that taxation should be facilitating business growth.
But the people in tax will always tell you that their primary objective, of course, is mobilizing revenue.
Mm-hmm.
And that's why government has counterbalance approaches through provision of these growth funds, provision of this infrastructure that she's talking about, incubation, and so on and so forth, so that the tax is not necessarily on its own prohibitive enough that it can collapse your entire enterprise.
Of course, many times when we hear the-
Le- let me first give him the softer one so that he can-
... do the pushups for the big one, if you don't mind, Raymond.
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