A news report by BBC News on Wednesday indicated that millions of Ugandans had abandoned the internet following government’s imposition of a social media tax last year
The Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) was reported to have made the disclosure.
It would be recalled that President Yoweri Museveni had pushed for the social media taxes to shore up government revenue base and to end “gossip” on WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter.
Under the fiscal regime, subscribers have to pay a tax for using social media and transferring money through mobile phone payments set at 200 Ugandan shillings, or about $0.05 or £0.04 per day.
The UCC indicated that internet subscription declined by more than 2.5 million users and money being transferred through mobile phones payments also fell by $1.2 million (about £920,000) since July 2018 as the burden of the social taxes weigh more on internet users.
The commission stated: “The decline in the amount of business could partly be explained by the introduction of mobile money tax.”
