President Yoweri Museveni has thrown out two tax bills passed in the final days of the Anita Among-led 11th Parliament, refusing to sign them into law and sending them back to the new House with a list of objections.
Deputy Speaker Thomas Tayebwa broke the news to MPs during Tuesday’s plenary sitting, announcing that the President had returned the Income Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2026 and the Excise Duty (Amendment) Bill, 2026 — both passed in April — over concerns of unfair tax treatment, revenue leakage, and threats to investment and jobs.
The President’s first target is Clause 11 of the Income Tax Bill, in which the outgoing Parliament handed land-based casinos licensed under the Lotteries and Gaming Act an exemption from a proposed 15 per cent withholding tax on betting and gaming winnings.
Museveni rejected the carve-out, arguing in his reservations that it creates opportunities for tax avoidance and revenue leakage. He noted that land-based casinos and online gaming operators engage in substantially similar activities and should not enjoy different tax treatment.
The exemption had been a win for the gaming industry. Uganda Gaming Operators Association chairman Bob Kabonero told Parliament’s Finance Committee in April that real-time withholding on land-based casino winnings would be impractical to administer and could undermine revenue collection.
The President’s second objection struck down Parliament’s dramatic tenfold increase in excise duty on single-use plastics — from 2.5 per cent or US$70 per tonne to 25 per cent or US$1,500 per tonne, whichever is higher — which MPs had approved as an environmental protection measure.
Museveni warned the increase was substantial and likely to pile significant cost pressures on manufacturers, pointing out that Uganda still lacks readily available alternatives to plastic packaging. He said the measure needs further study before it can serve as sound environmental policy, insisting on a balance between green goals and economic reality in a sector that supports thousands of jobs.
The bills’ return set off a procedural storm in the House. Bbale County MP Charles Tebandeke questioned whether bills passed by a defunct Parliament could be reconsidered by the current one at all — and whether the President had beaten the constitutional clock.
Tayebwa shut down the challenge, dismissing suggestions that the President had breached Article 91 of the Constitution, which gives the President 30 days to assent to a bill, return it, or decline to sign it.
“The Constitution is very clear, 30 days from the date it is presented to him or her. I know the President responded within 30 days as the Presiding Officer,” he ruled, ordering that remarks suggesting a constitutional breach be struck from the record.
The Finance Committee has now been handed the task of reworking the bills to address the President’s concerns before they return to the floor. With the two bills forming part of the tax package underpinning the 2026/27 national budget, any prolonged delay could punch a hole in government’s revenue projections for the financial year that began this month.
Railway safety concerns
In the same sitting, Tayebwa demanded that all railway crossings be physically protected to stop the loss of lives, following the July 10 collision between a train and a school bus at the Namumira-Bukasa village crossing in Nakisunga Sub-county on the Kyetume-Katosi Road, which killed one person and injured several students of Mwebaze High School travelling to Jinja.
“When the train is crossing, we should block the roads, not a traffic officer getting in the middle of the road,” Tayebwa said.
Mukono South MP Robert Maseruka condemned the crash and urged government to prioritise railway safety countrywide. Preliminary investigations and CCTV footage suggested the bus driver may have ignored warning signals and the train’s horn, and the Ministry of Works and Transport has urged road users to exercise extreme caution at level crossings.
