Jesco Building in Kampala closed during the trader’s strike
President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has met and held discussions with the leadership of traders in Kampala and upcountry districts at State House Entebbe.
The meeting followed a strike by traders who closed their businesses, expressing their discontent against the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA)’s implementation of the Electronic Fiscal Receipting and Invoicing Solution (EFRIS).
The discussions mainly centred on the taxation levied on their businesses, especially the EFRIS system.
During the meeting, the President informed the traders that he would meet the technocrats from the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development and URA on the 24th, April 2024 for wider consultations.
The President also noted that he will then meet with all the traders on 7th May 2024 at Kololo Ceremonial Grounds.
President Museveni further directed that all penalties should be suspended by the URA for the meantime to give room for wider consultations.
The leaders of the traders agreed to reopen their businesses as they continue to consult further with the government.
The delegation of 61 leaders was led by Mr. Kabanda John, the leader of the Federation of Uganda’s Traders Associations (FUTA) and Dr. Musoke Thadeus Agenda, the leader of Kampala City Traders Association (KACITA).
The meeting was also attended by Mr. Issa Ssekito, the Spokesperson of KACITA.
In the meantime, the leaders of the traders agreed to reopen their businesses as they continue to consult further with the government.
The protests were started last week by traders affiliated with the Federation of Uganda Traders’ Associations (FUTA) and this week on Tuesday, they were joined by their colleagues under Kampala City Traders Association-KACITA.
These contend that the EFRIS system has a lot of inconsistencies that need to be addressed before implementing it. Among these, they say it requires all traders to have an expensive machine which many can’t afford.
Its supply was monopolized to one company which ruled out competitiveness which so unfair.
They also contend that they don’t know how the system operates as businessmen and so to implement it now they need to hire experts which may be expensive to them
The traders also pointed out that EFRIS has unnecessary penalties with huge amounts of money which they can’t afford to pay for their businesses to survive.
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