Mbabazi promises to scrap electricity tax

Rakai- Independent presidential candidate Amama Mbabazi has excited people at Mutukula border with his promise to scrap tax on electricity, saying this is the reason majority Ugandans cannot afford monthly power bills.

Addressing a rally at Mutukula border post in Rakai District on Tuesday, Mr Mbabazi said his government will also increase access to electricity from the current 12 per cent to 60 per cent by the end of his term in 2021.

“It is unfortunate that when you cross the border here, our counterparts there enjoy better power tariffs than you simply because of the heavy taxes charged on electricity. You can’t afford paying for electricity and even investors are shunning our country due to expensive and unreliable power supply . This is going to be sorted out,” he said to his ululating crowd.
Recently, the Electricity Regulatory Authority (ERA) announced that it had reduced power tariffs this month, meaning electricity consumers can enjoy lower end-user tariffs.

Mr Mbabazi said his government will emphasise challenges affecting the common man because as a person, he has capacity to stamp out corruption , which he says has failed effective service delivery in the current regime.

He also promised to promote agriculture through giving soft loans to farmers and appointing a minister in charge of marketing Uganda’s agricultural projects abroad. He also promised to stock drugs and equip hospitals and health centres as well as training skilled health workers.

He said while in government, the health services will be affordable and accessible to everyone.
He also excited the gathering when he reiterated his plan to pay loans which don’t exceed Shs5 million, which citizens secured from financial institution.

He added that his government will pay Shs5 million for every Ugandan to help facilitate a loan that was received before December 31,2015.
He added that this will be implemented as soon as he assumes power.

However, there was a scuffle at the border post when the officer in charge of Mutukula Police Station, Mr Morris Niyonzima, attempted to block Mr Mbabazi’s convoy from accessing the customs point.

Information on electricty tariffs

Households and kiosk owners are now supposed to pay Shs651 per unit, down from Shs667.4. They will, however, have to pay Shs150 for each of the first 15 units they consume. This reduction impacts on 700, 000 domestic consumers.

ERA attributes reduction of the tariff to the appreciation of the Uganda Shilling against the US dollar and the reduction of the distribution loss target from 18.5 per cent (2015) to 17.1 per cent, the 2016 target for 2016.

Currently, the price of electricity from Bujagali is 11 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh).

If capacity utilisation at Bujagali were 100 per cent, the tariff would fall by 33 per cent to eight cents per Kwh. The 11 cents per kWh is also because Bujagali Electricity Ltd has a corporation tax holiday for five years. When it kicks-in in 2017, the tariff is projected to increase to 14 cents per Kwh.

Currently, commercial electricity consumers are supposed to pay Shs587 down from 604.7 whereas medium industrial consumers will pay Shs567.3 per unit and the large industrial consumers will pay Shs369.4, down from Shs381.1.

editorial@ug.nationmedia.com