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Mengo to leave all taxation to the central government;
cultural leaders upkeep is the responsibility of the central government. By J. Senyonjo I think the Mengo team has dropped the ball. It has failed to negotiate for meaningful federalism; in a number of years, if parliament passes the version of federalism as reported, Buganda and Uganda are likely to face problems. The problem lies, first in the regions relying on the central government to remit to them all the tax revenues they need to operate (under such arrangement we are likely to hear byoya bya nswa again), and second, in giving the central government the responsibility for looking after traditional leaders like the Kabaka. In due time, the traditional leaders in Uganda are likely to become mouthpieces, or agents of the central government, leading to potential clashes with elected leaders -- in their own regions -- who may hold opposing views. Uganda's only hope is that parliament will do a better job in formulating a federal solution for Uganda. Despite appearances, the government, in my view, is getting what it wants: a modified unitary system.
If the regions want power to effect development they
should also take on the responsibility of raising a substantial amount of
their own revenues through agreed upon formulas with the central government,
even if they use a central government agency such as the URA's regional office to
administer taxes on their behalf. They cannot expect to have reliable, and
predictable revenue streams from the central government when even government
institutions such as Mulago hospital according to today's news often do not
get the agreed upon budget funds from the government. The districts do not
either. And just a couple of days ago the government said that it is
going to force the districts to collect more of their own revenues instead of
relying on the central government; but the regional governments under the
proposed arrangement would depend on the central government for their
revenues!
It would have been better for the Buganda team to leave
the issue of tax administration to parliament, or a national federal
conference. Our studies of federalism at the very beginning of our
deliberations on FedsNet showed that revenue collection/sharing is
perhaps the most important ingredient for stability in federal systems,
and for the independence and integrity of the different levels of
government.
Revenue collection by the regions would promote accountability
and responsibility. The regions would have to be creative in revenue raising
strategies to ensure that their development objectives are met. This
would necessarily force them to promote and attract industries that would
employ their people thus generating more revenue from their portions of
corporate and person income taxes, along with sales taxes. The problems with
the government remitting revenues to the regions is that it renders the
regions mere beneficiaries of the tax collection efforts of the central
government without the attendant responsibility for collecting them.
Consequently, it would be hard for the regions to hold their regional
governments accountable for not delivering expected results; the regional
leaders can always blame the central government for insufficient tax
revenues.
If Uganda were not a third-world country with weak respect for
institutions, and were more like the developed countries, one could give the
proposed revenue sharing arrangement some benefit of the doubt, however
insufficient it is. However, even in developed countries, like the U.S., the
states sometimes complain that they do not get enough back from the taxes
they remit to the central government, this despite the fact that the states collect
a great portion of their own revenues themselves. Now imagine a
situation where the central government collects all the taxes, especially in a
country like Uganda.
See report below:
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