The government has asked for more time to harmonize ambiguity in the proposed Sugar Amendment Bill 2023 which is proposing a controversial new tax on Sugar millers that has attracted backlash from sector players.
The government seeks to slap a levy on sugar manufacturers to generate revenue to facilitate activities of the Sugar Council to be established by the bill.
Today, the committee of trade which is considering the Sugar Amendment Bill 2023 interfaced with the Ministry of Finance specifically on provisions to do with a proposed levy on Sugar Millers to facilitate activities of the Sugar Industry Stakeholders’ Council proposed in the bill to regulate affairs of the sugar sector.
However, the state minister for Finance Henry Musasizi faced a hard time convincing members of the committee of the trade who questioned the levy on grounds that the government can’t provide for a levy to be collected by private individuals.
The government tabled the Sugar (Amendment) Bill, 2023 seeking to repeal the Sugar Board that was established in Section 13 of the Sugar Act to replace it with the Sugar Industry Stakeholder Council funded by stakeholders due to the Government Policy on rationalization which restricts the creation of new statutory bodies. In this regard, the government proposed this tax for the council to generate revenue for its activities.
Musasizi told the committee that the tax would not be collected by the government and would not go to the consolidated fund but would remain at the disposal of the Sugar Council which will collect it.
MPs raised legal gaps in the bill, arguing that any mandatory tax imposed by the government by law must be administered by the government.
In this regard, the committee hit a stalemate and the minister prayed for more time to reconcile the bill.
The proposed bill is sponsored by the Ministry of Trade which is seeking to bring sanity to the sugar sector that is suffering from the fluctuating supply of sugarcanes.
