Sezibera warns local gov’ts against ‘illegal’ taxes

The Secretary General of the East African Community (EAC), Dr Richard Sezibera, has urged local government authorities to desist from levying local taxes on goods, business people and transporters.Sezibera made the remarks on Wednesday while meeting officials from the East African Local Governments Association (EALGA) at his office in Arusha, Tanzania.He said by imposing the taxes, local authorities were impacting negatively on doing business and investment in the region. According to Sezibera, various local government authorities in the region have continuously levied taxes on transporters, contrary to the Common Market protocol that bars taxes on goods transiting through a country.Speaking to The New Times, the president of the Rwanda Association of Local Government Authorities, Justus Kangwagye, welcomed the call, saying taxing heavily not only slows development but also violates the decentralisation process.“A meeting held recently in Cardiff in Wales to promote local economic development in local governments, heavy taxation was noted as a barrier to growth,” said Kangwagye.but however commended Rwanda’s taxation policy. “As far as decentralisation is concerned, Rwanda’s taxation policy is very friendly so far because there is a baseline,” he said.At the meeting, the Arusha Chairman of EALGA, Taraiya Kores, noted that the relationship between EAC and EALGA started in February 2007 and since then the latter has enjoyed the warmth and support of the bloc which also provided it with office space for three years.A meeting in Kigali last year of East African Local Government Ministers and Local Government Associations, proposed the establishment of the East African Local Government Forum (EALGF) that would work more closely with the EAC Secretariat.EALGA was established in 2005 in Uganda by the Governing Council to promote and facilitate the mandates of national local government associations in East Africa.

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Sezibera warns local gov’ts against ‘illegal’ taxes