President Museveni has once again returned the Income Tax Amendment Bill to Parliament for review declining to append his signature to have it passed into an Act.
The bill which has generated a lot of negative criticism seeks to among others exempt legislators from paying taxes on their emoluments.
This was the first ground that the president refused to sign the bill and he returned it to the house calling on MPs to review the contentious article.
However members discussed the bill and returned it to the president maintaining their earlier stand.
Yesterday Tuesday, the Speaker Rebecca Kadaga told members that the president had again returned the bill for review of another article this time concerning the oil production.
“The president has returned the Income Tax Amendment bill to enable us review the oil production sharing agreements,” said Kadaga during her communication to the house.
Kadaga noted that, “According to the president, the understanding of both the government and the existing licensees has been that there is a cap on allowable deductions for income tax purposes.”
“The cap is set at the cost recovery limits which have been specified in respective production agreements. This is evidenced in the economic modeling of the existing agreements and the licenses. It is included in the various field development plans submitted to government for approval.”
“So according to the president, restricting the cap on allowable deductions would be a change in this position which has always been understood and accepted by both government and the licensees.
“Therefore the president is proposing that we review and delete section 6 of the income tax (amdnt) Act.
“He has made some proposals for our consideration, so we shall be sending this matter to the committee to review this and give us a report so that we conclude on income tax amendment Act.”