Michael Atwakiire
Sheema: Frank Kyereere, the Resident District Commissioner (RDC) has assured landlords in the area that they will pay taxes whether they want it or not.
Kyereere revealed this on Friday at Sun beach hotel Kabwohe, leaving most property owners in cursing and spitting venom. On 25th March 2019, Sheema municipality landlords led by their Chairman Seriano Mubangizi, wrote a three-page letter to the RDC, asking him to save them from paying property tax. In the letter they mentioned some key points why they don’t want to pay the tax set by the government valuer. “Is owning property in Sheema municipality a case? If not then why are we tasked to pay for it?” Those and others are some of the questions property owners asked themselves when Sheema municipal council ordered to pay taxes.
“Our boss whom we trust so much, we aren’t against the tax but we are against the way we were taxed. First of all the law doesn’t allow temporary house owners to pay the tax and even residential houses should not be taxed, which is not the case in Sheema;, all those are taxed, why? ” Kyereere replied that “Those who have temporary houses in the municipality are very lucky. Temporary houses or property shouldn’t be in municipality. Therefore you’re lucky that they weren’t destructed. Even when the government is valuing, it doesn’t look at the materials used to build but it looks at the property because it is what is taxed.” We tried talking to some property owners like Odo Babigyendera Kamushwaaga, who told us that “The problem with government is one; they put us on pressure to pay these taxes promising us better service delivery but after paying them, they delay or sometimes don’t fulfill what they promised at all.”
