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{
    "id": 72937,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/72937/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 443,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Kimunya",
    "speaker_title": "The Minister for Transport",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 174,
        "legal_name": "Amos Muhinga Kimunya",
        "slug": "amos-kimunya"
    },
    "content": " Mr. Temporary Deputy Chairman, I beg to oppose this amendment. In opposing this amendment, I would like to put some matter into perspective. The whole change of excise regime puts emphasies from retail selling price to the characteristics of cigarettes to be in tandem with what is happening in Uganda, which is part of East Africa, as the Chairman of the Departmental Committee of Finance Committee has so ably said, happened when I was active at the Treasury. Mr. Temporary Deputy Chairman, Sir, I am glad that the Chairman recognized that through a negotiation process in the Committee the rates were harmonized. At that point, it was very clear that by pegging taxation to a selling price, we are basically running the risk of curtailing the capacity of a company to increase the price of its products beyond the ceiling. This is because immediately they go beyond that ceiling, then they have to start paying the higher duty for the same cigarettes. Mr. Temporary Deputy Chairman, Sir, this issue became very clear in 2008, when the prices of about everything went up. For the cigarettes that were being sold as Class A and B, despite the economic realities of the day, the manufacturers could not sell them beyond a certain price - which is what we are capping here - without attracting a higher tax duty although we are basically talking of the same cigarettes. After thorough research, it was looked at and we said, we must move from pegging duty on bands of prices, which then curtail the manufacturers from raising the prices beyond those bands, to characteristics of cigarettes. For example, if you are to set excise duties of the vehicle on the selling price, you would basically be saying that any vehicle costing up to certain"
}