There and Back Again: The Making of Uganda’s Mobile Money Tax
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Working Paper 123
This paper evaluates the appropriateness of the tax policymaking process that led to the introduction, and the later adaptation, of a tax on mobile money transactions in Uganda in 2018. We examine the unusual source of the proposal, how this particular tax diverged from the usual tax policymaking process, and whether certain key stakeholders were excluded.
We argue that weaknesses in the tax policymaking process undermined the quality of policy design, and resulted in a period of costly, and avoidable, policy adjustment. This case study is relevant for Uganda as well as for other low-income countries which could be exposed to similar challenges in designing effective taxes for the mobile money industry.
Doris Akol is a Ugandan lawyer and consultant on revenue administration. She is currently the chair of the ICTD’s Centre Advisory Group, and a Senior Economist at the IMF Fiscal Affairs Department. She was formerly the Senior Policy and Engagement Advisor with ICTD Digitax Programme. Prior to that she was the Commissioner General at the Uganda Revenue Authority, a position she held until March 2020.
Adrienne Lees is a Doctoral Fellow at ICTD, working primarily on projects relating to tax administration and compliance, and on the DIGITAX programme. She has completed an ODI Fellowship in the Tax Policy Department at the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development in Uganda. Adrienne holds an MSc in Economics for Development from the University of Oxford and is completing her PhD in Economics at the University of Sussex.
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