Museveni schedules another meeting with traders

Museveni is today, Friday, meeting representatives of the business community, specifically the leaders of traders, and stakeholders.

The meeting was taking place at State House, Entebbe.

Second meeting

State House, however, confirmed this afternoon that the president has scheduled another bigger meeting to be attended by the rest of the traders.

This one will take place at the Kololo Independence Grounds.

President Yoweri Museveni Pulse

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“The exact date and time of the meeting will be communicated at a later stage,” State House announced in a statement.

The Kampala city traders have since been joined by colleagues in other cities including Jinja and Masaka to close their shops.

These are opposed to the EFRIS system, which they say is sucking their businesses dry.

They also accuse the Uganda Uganda Revenue Authority of using brute force in implementing the system.

During the meeting with the Ministry of Finance officials on April 16, 2024, traders expressed concern that EFRIS presents several challenges, notably: it imposes a high cost of compliance; most traders don’t understand the system; and it applies to all traders irrespective of whether they are VAT registered or not.

Traders also want the Government to consider increasing the VAT threshold from Shs 150 million to Shs. 1 billion and a reduction of the VAT rate from 18% to 16%.