Female opposition legislators want their counterparts in Parliament to reverse the decision passed last week to tax diapers.
The Women MPs from the opposition wing reasoned that approval of the government’s 18 per cent Value Added Tax (VAT) on disposable diapers was detrimental to both mothers’ productivity and the growth of the state.
“While the government proposal to introduce a tax on diapers is intended to increase the revenue of the country, the country stands to lose a productive time as mothers will be wasting time on reusable diapers or nappies,” Ms Joyce Bagala, the Mityana Woman MP said Wednesday afternoon.
Ms Bagala, also shadow Information Minister is equally worried that the elderly that rely on diapers will be affected as many are financially unstable.
“Many of these senior citizens are retired and lack a daily income to meet some of their needs. Taxing the elderly’s diapers will worsen the health condition arising from improperly handled reusable nappies,” Ms Bagala said.
In the course of debating and passing the said tax legislation on Thursday last week, the State Minister for Finance in charge of planning, Mr Amos Lugoloobi intimated that Shs2.6 billion would be realised once implemented.
Already tax collector Uganda Revenue Authority has projected that it hopes to collect at least Shs29.3 trillion in revenue in the Financial Year 2023/2024.
This, Ms Brenda Nabukenya, the Luwero Woman MP says should be done with sound taxation suggestions premised on research prior to the legislation, something she alleges was never done.
“It will be very unfortunate for this tax to go on and I would ask members to reconsider it because we feel this is very insensitive to the mothers,” she said.
The Kiboga Woman MP, Ms Christine Nakimwero Kaaya trashed the argument that diapers would frustrate efforts to tame environmental degradation. She reasoned that diapers are now a necessity that requires the government to place focus on disposal mechanisms.
“Our plan is to come up with a proper waste management of diapers because we cannot go back to the old days of nappies,” she said.
