#Press_Digest #Constitutional #Court petitioned to stop #mobile_money #tax City economist and consultant, Joshua Tumwine has petitioned the Constitutional Court seeking to stop the Government from collecting tax on mobile money withdrawals, saying the act infringes the Constitution. Tumwiine said legitimization of illegal business like mobile money business undermines the rule of law in business and undermines and interferes with the Constitutional mandate of Bank of Uganda to regulate the financial sector. He added that it amounts to a criminal offense under the Financial Institutions Act, charging that #URA should stop taxation of mobile money services until the service is legalized. #COMESA earmarks Shs190 billion for #Kampala-#Jinja highway expansion The Common market for Eastern and Southern #Africa has identified 75 km of the Kampala-Jinja highway as one of the six infrastructure projects to be developed by the bloc. The six projects, identified by the Programme for Infrastructure #Development in Africa (PIDA), are meant to be implemented by the year 2020. The projects were selected during a Financing Summit for Africa’s Infrastructure that took place in #Dakar, #Senegal recently. New packages boost domestic #tourism A series of new innovations by the #Uganda_Wildlife_Authority (UWA) has led to a surge in the growth of domestic tourism, with the latest official calculations pointing to an increase in the number of #Ugandans embracing tourism spots. According to records at the national parks of #Mburo, #Queen_Elizabeth and #Semliki, the number of Ugandan visitors has surpassed that of foreigners, pointing to a trend that could change the face of tourism in the country. With much of the western world undergoing a financial squeeze, there had always been worries that there could be a slowdown in foreign #tourists coming to visit #Uganda. Neighbours sign up for #Uganda refinery shares #Kenya, #Rwanda and #Burundi have confirmed interest in taking up a portion of the 10 per cent shareholding in the #Hoima_refinery that Uganda had reserved for its EAC neighbors. Uganda plans to build a refinery with a capacity of 60,000 barrels of #oil per day (bpd) that will be scaled up to 180,000 bpd in phases, through a public private partnership. The country invited its neighbors in order to spread the risk and to secure the regional market for the refinery’s products, expected from 2017. Officials at Uganda’s Ministry of #Energy said they have received letters of interest from the three countries; #Tanzania has asked for more time to decide. #Kenya secures Sh4.4bn loan to train oil and gas workers The government has negotiated a Sh4.4 billion loan from the World Bank to fund training of its workers to manage petroleum resources. The training will be done under the Kenya Petroleum Technical Assistance Project, targeting officials from the ministry of Energy and Petroleum, the Treasury, the State Law Office, the National Oil Corporation of Kenya, Energy Regulatory Commission and the Kenya Pipeline Company, among other government agencies. The workers will be trained on formulation and drafting of comprehensive petroleum policy, geotechnical data acquisition, processing and interpretation, oil revenue administration, income saving mechanisms, as well as local skills’ development to fill existing gaps. The programme will also focus on development of a communications strategy to create awareness for managing expectations and formulation of a structure for relaying information on petroleum business. At the moment, government records show that oil reserves discovered in the northern part of the country so far are in excess of 600 million barrels, which industry insiders say meets the minimum threshold for commercial exploitation. #Rwanda hosts #international_conference on #financial_inclusion as part of activities to mark golden jubilee of the National Bank of Rwanda (Government of the Republic of Rwanda) Congratulating the management, staff and stakeholders of the #Rwanda_Central_Bank, President Kagame said the bank was a mirror of Rwandas resilience: Our government inherited a devastated economy and empty coffers. The bank has mirrored the resilience of Rwanda and its people by safeguarding Rwandas economy for the last 20 years and remaining on path of equitable growth and development. The Managing Director and World Bank Group Chief Finance Officer, Badré Bertrand said financial inclusion is a priority by the World Bank. group and Rwanda is an excellent example of financial inclusion
Posted on: Mon, 21 Jul 2014 05:14:42 +0000