Case file EDA-2018-FEES15
Excise duty on mobile money and bank charges raised from 10% to 15%
Highest rung reached: Official forecastLaw: read in a statutory textRate increase · Revenue
1 point pending verification
- A reported yield: URA does not report one for this measure.
Law
- Principal Act
- Excise Duty Act (Cap 336), enacted as Act 11 of 2014
- Amending Act
- Excise Duty (Amendment) Act 2018 (Act 9 of 2018) (verified)
- Provision, revised numbering (2023 revision)
- Sch. 2, items 13(c) and 14
- Provision, numbering before the revision
- Sch. 2, Part I, items 13(d) and 14
- Principal Act dates
- assent 2014-10-19; gazette 2014-10-24; commencement 2014-07-01; Uganda Gazette 61
- Amending Act in force from
- 1 July 2018 (assented 21 June 2018; gazetted 29 June 2018)
- Tax heads and taxpayers affected
- Excise duty. Bank and mobile money customers who pay fees.
- Status
- Legal: in force. Implementation: implemented.
| Section A: The law | |
|---|---|
| Amending Act | Excise Duty (Amendment) Act 2018 (Act 9 of 2018) |
| In force from | 1 July 2018 |
| Assent | 21 June 2018 |
| Section B: What the law said before | |
| The wording before and after is set out in the redline below. | |
| *** END OF CHANGE SLIP *** | |
The redline
as at 2018-06-30
Deleted: 10% of the fees charged[ACT-EDA-2018-9, PDF page 7, s. 6(h), quoting the words replaced]
as at 2018-07-01
Inserted: 15% of the fees chargedVerified law: Wording or a date read in a statutory text, with the version and page named.[ACT-EDA-2018-9, PDF page 7, s. 6(h)]
Item 14 as amended by s. 6(h) of Act 9 of 2018, which quotes the words it replaces. The same Act set money transfer and withdrawal fees, other than banks', at 15% of the fees charged in item 13(d).
In plain English
Interpretation: A reading of the evidence, by a named source or by this register. The excise on fees for money transfers, withdrawals and bank charges went up. URA does not separate the gain from ordinary growth in fees.
Reason
Stated objective pending verification
Revenue
Amendment-level revenue contribution not reliably quantified.
- Rung 1
Observed change
Observed: A value or event as an official source records it, copied without calculation.- Collections for the tax heads affected are drawn on the story page, from URA's annual data books. Before and after is never presented as this amendment's effect.
- Rung 2
Official forecast
Official forecast: What MoFPED or URA said a measure would raise, or why it was made, before the year began.- MoFPED: UGX 45 bn expected in FY2018/19 (Excise duty on mobile money and bank charges raised from 10% to 15%).[MOF-CG-1819, printed page 8, PDF page 11]
- Rung 3
Reported yield
Reported yield: What URA attributes to a measure after the year. An official attribution, not a causal estimate.Missing. URA's annual revenue reports read for the register attribute no yield to this measure. URA's measure-level policy tables, where they exist, would settle it (URA Research and Planning).
- Rung 4
Static or modelled estimate
Modelled estimate: A mechanical or model calculation, with every assumption shown.Missing. No estimate made. A static estimate needs the taxable base before the change (volumes or values by product), which the register does not hold.
- Rung 5
Causal estimate
Causal estimate: An effect identified by a stated research design against a comparison group.Missing. No study with a defensible identification strategy was found for this amendment.
- Rung 6
Wider impact
Interpretation: A reading of the evidence, by a named source or by this register.Missing. No source read for the register describes effects on prices, compliance cost, investment or equity.
What is known, what is uncertain, and what would settle it
- Known: official forecast.
- Uncertain: reported yield, static or modelled estimate, causal estimate, wider impact; and 1 open point below.
- Would settle it: Request to the Clerk to Parliament for certified copies of the Excise Duty, Income Tax, Value Added Tax, Stamp Duty and Tax Procedures Code (Amendment) Acts of 2015 to 2025, with their dates of assent and Gazette notice numbers. Held by Uganda Printing and Publishing Corporation (Uganda Gazette); Parliament of Uganda Library; ULII.
- Would settle it: Request to URA under the Access to Information Act 2005 for the policy measures performance annexes for FY2015/16 to FY2024/25, including 'Policy measures report fy 201819'. Held by Uganda Revenue Authority, Research, Planning and Development Division.
Pathway
From the amendment to its wider consequences. Select a link to read what supports it. No money is drawn along the chain, because no flow along it is measured.
Verified: A source read for the register documents this link.
The provision is read in the ULII consolidated text.
- amendment: verified. The provision is read in the ULII consolidated text.
- mechanism: verified. A higher rate on an existing base.
- implementation: no evidence. No source read dates its implementation.
- response: no evidence. No source read describes how taxpayers responded.
- outcome: no evidence. No reported yield or estimate.
- wider: no evidence. No source read measures wider effects. No evidence found is not evidence of no effect.
Consequences
Graded against ten criteria. No composite score: a reform that raises money can still be regressive or costly to comply with, and one that loses revenue can serve a legitimate aim. Revenue effectiveness is graded by a stated rule; the rest only where a source speaks to them.
What worked
No criterion graded effective on the evidence read.
What did not
No criterion graded ineffective or counterproductive on the evidence read.
Open or not evaluated
Revenue effectiveness
No pair of official forecast and reported yield in shillings.(graded by rule)
Not evaluated
Legal clarity and certainty
No source read for the register speaks to this criterion.
Not evaluated
Administrative feasibility
No source read for the register speaks to this criterion.
Not evaluated
Compliance cost
No source read for the register speaks to this criterion.
Not evaluated
Efficiency
No source read for the register speaks to this criterion.
Not evaluated
Investment and competitiveness
No source read for the register speaks to this criterion.
Not evaluated
Vertical and horizontal equity
No source read for the register speaks to this criterion.
Not evaluated
Distributional effect
No source read for the register speaks to this criterion.
Not evaluated
Implementation quality
No source read for the register speaks to this criterion.
Not evaluated
Unintended consequences
No source read for the register speaks to this criterion.
Not evaluated
Afterlife
No Tax Appeals Tribunal or court decision on this provision is on record yet. That is not evidence that none exists.
Pending verification
- A reported yield: URA does not report one for this measure.
Sources
MOF-CG-1819
Know Your Budget 2018: A Citizen's Guide to the Budget of FY 2018/19
Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development. 2018-06. Covers FY2018/19.
Status: verified. Pages confirmed for this record in the source audit: 11 (PDF).
Fetched online and read page images of PDF pages 10 and 11 (printed pages 7 and 8). It summarises the budget speech; the speech itself was not read.
REPO-REVENUE
Revenue collections and targets by tax head (data/raw/Revenue_by_TaxHead.json)
Uganda Revenue Authority, Annual Data Books FY2019/20 and FY2024/25, as compiled in this repository. 2026. Covers FY2015/16 to FY2024/25.
data/raw/Revenue_by_TaxHead.json
Status: verified. No page of this source is confirmed for this record by the audit; it is cited for context.
Existing repository extract, reused, not copied.
ULII-EDA-2025
Excise Duty Act (Chapter 336), version of 1 July 2025
Uganda Legal Information Institute (ULII) and Laws.Africa, from the Law Reform Commission revision. 2025-07-01. Covers Text in force from 1 July 2025; revised and consolidated as at 31 December 2023, later amendments applied by Laws.Africa.
Desktop/Personal/Tax Legislation and URA Returns/Excise Duty Act Cap 336.pdf
Status: verified. Pages confirmed for this record in the source audit: 17 (PDF).
Read in full with pdftotext. Lists amending Acts on PDF page 3.
ACT-EDA-2018-9
Excise Duty (Amendment) Act, 2018 (Act 9 of 2018)
Parliament of Uganda, published by the Uganda Printing and Publishing Corporation. 2018-06-29. Covers Assented 21 June 2018; in force 1 July 2018.
Desktop/Tax legislation Amendment Acts/Excise Duty (Amendment) Act, 2018.pdf
Status: verified. Pages confirmed for this record in the source audit: 7 (PDF).
Acts Supplement No. 2 to the Uganda Gazette No. 33, Volume CXI, dated 29 June 2018. Read in full from the text layer of the copy supplied by the author (9 pages).