By Spy Uganda
Busoga Kingdom’s official television station, BaBa TV on Wednesday hosted and held fruitful discussions with officials from the country’s tax body, Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) in a bid to strengthen partnerships on tax awareness in the country.
The meeting was held at the BaBa TV Complex in Ntinda, with the URA delegation led by its Assistant Commissioner Public and Corporate Affairs, Ibrahim Bbosa. The hosts were led by the station’s CEO Hon Moses Balyeku.
During the deliberation, Bbosa expressed pleasure in BaBa TV’s continued partnership with URA on matters of tax education.
“We are elated by BaBa Television’s consistency in working with us in the last two or so years. You have covered our tax-related activities, relayed live events and we have been getting positive feedback from the public,” Bbosa said.
“We are thus grateful for this partnership and hope to strengthen it since there are bigger tasks ahead,” added.
Asked whether in the spirit of partnership, URA can devise modalities of waiving tax from some media equipment to aid their operations, Bbosa responded in the affirmative, noting that media houses are URA’s strategic partners and play a pivotal role in tax education.
He advised that the media industry can, through their umbrella bodies, petition government to waive tax on media equipment that is procured outside Uganda just as it is for those in the sports industry.
On his part, Sir Simon Muyanga, appealed to the tax body to interest itself in training journalists who may wish to specialize in tax reporting beat.
“There should be reporters who have been trained and specialized in taxes just like it is the case for sports journalists, environment journalists, and political reporters. Tax is a big thing but having such specialized people will ease media capacity to explain taxes with clarity,” Muyanga said.
It should be noted that BaBa TVÂ has been hosting tax educators and other officials from URA to create tax awareness. This year alone, Ibrahim Bbosa himself has been hosted twice on the platform on the same cause.
Last year in October, the station relayed live the URA e-Bomba ya Business Summit, discussing investing in real estate with a focus on what people ought to know and do.
Prior to that, in April of the same year, BaBa TV senior Journalist, Samuel Mwesigwa, moderated the Electronic Fiscal Receipting and Invoicing Solution (EFRIS) Baraza held in Jinja and relayed live on BaBa TV.
