Taxes on poultry feeds are illegal - Farmers

The farmers called upon president Museveni to come to their rescue.

Poultry farmers under their umbrella Poultry association of Uganda (PAU) have raised an alarm to government over what they called abrupt and illegal taxation and execution of a 10% import duty and 18% Value added tax (VAT) on animal feeds and premixes by the Uganda Revenue Authority.

While addressing the media at their head offices in Lugogo, poultry farmers say that these taxes had been scrapped by parliament in 2017 after the amendment of the VAT Act faulting URA for illegally bringing them back.

After parliament’s decision in 2017, URA consequently stopped levying VAT on all chicken feed imports and continued collecting only withholding tax. Parliament’s intention was to spur the growth of the industry which the farmers say has been working amazingly.

Paul Ssenkungu, the secretary to the Poultry Association of Uganda says that government has not responded to their pleas and instead looks on as URA imposes very high taxes on animal feeds and premixes.

“The government of Uganda has not responded to our cry as poultry farmers in a situation where URA has resumed the imposition of very heavy taxes on animal feeds and premixes including those that had been exempted in the previous years”, Ssenkungu said

As a result of increased taxes, prices of animal feeds have relatively increased and this has greatly impacted the egg prices. A tray of 30 eggs now goes for between Ugx 13,000 and Ugx 15,000.

“Most of the Ugandans are most likely to relinquish from the use of eggs and egg products due to the escalating prices and many are most likely to start importing eggs from countries like Brazil, kenya and Tanzania where no taxes are being levied on animal feeds and premixes”, he added

Jjagwe Charles a Poultry farmer called upon all farmers in the country to unite behind them as they advocate for the new taxes to be removed.

“All farmers in the country should come up with a collective voice on the action taken by URA to illegally impose heavy taxes on the agricultural sector which has been the commercial base for the country”, Jaggwe said.

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The farmers called upon president Museveni to come to their rescue.

“We propose a meeting with His excellency Yoweri Kaguta Museveni the president of Uganda so that we sit and talk about the prevailing challenges faced by the poultry industry”,

Kayongo George William, an animal feed and premix importer revealed that his goods are now stuck at URA because he was asked to pay VAT and other taxes that he was exempt from in previous years.

“Much of my goods are still impounded at the URA because i was asked to pay millions of money as VAT for clearance along side all the taxes that had been exempted from me in all the previous years”, he said

Over 1,000 containers full of poultry feed are already en-route to Uganda on the high seas, the ports and the borders. Delays to the importers as we await a URA decision is expected to directly increase costs of doing business due to demurrage, penalties and expiry of goods.

We tried to reach URA for comment in vain as their spokesperson Ibrahim Bosa did not answer our calls on his known phone numbers.

Tags: Poultry farmers Poultry feeds premixes