Uganda: Kasese Council, Firm Clash Over Salt Cash
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New Vision (Kampala)
17 July 2008
Posted to the web 18 July 2008
Columbus Tusiime
Kampala
The Katwe-Kabatooro town council and the company collecting taxes at the salt lake in Kasese district have disagreed over revenue.
The clash stems from a disagreement on the tax to be levied on the salt dealers. Last month, the council resolved to reduce the taxes by 30% to attract more people into salt trade.
Under the proposed tax cuts, 100 kilogrammes of Mahonde (crude salt) formerly charged sh1,800 was reduced by sh500, while a basin of cream salt previously going at sh400 was reduced to sh250.
On Monday, a team of councillors travelled to the salt production areas for an on-spot assessment since the taxes were reduced.
They found that Bakwa Company, which won the tender to manage revenue collection, had not implemented the council resolutions and business was low.
Under the contract, the company is expected to remit sh19m monthly to the council. But they reneged on the agreement, claiming that there were few salt traders.
Angered by the turn of events, the Katwe-Kabatooro LC3 chairman, Kiiza Kagoro, blamed the district contracts committee for awarding the tender before his council had passed its budget for the 2008/2009 financial year.
But the town clerk, Moses Bwambale, who is the chief implementer of council resolutions, declined to comment.
He, however, blamed the politicians for the wrangle.
Kagoro on Wednesday said Bwambale had failed to implement council resolutions and demanded his transfer, adding that if town clerk was not moved, the council would be compelled to take the district to court.
In May, the council wrote to the chief administrative officer, Willy Bataringaya, asking him to stop the tendering of Katwe salt lake as per an advert in The New Vision of May 16 but he reportedly did not respond.
Katwe-Kabatooro has lost significant revenue due to the misunderstanding.
The councillors discovered that several traders were loading salt onto heavy trucks without paying taxes.
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Meanwhile, the council resolved to leave the gates to the salt mines open, pending a final decision on the management of tax collection.
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