SEATINI - Uganda Journalism Awards for Taxation/ Governance Reporting

The importance of taxation to any economy cannot be overstated. It plays the traditional roles of raising government revenue, redistributing wealth and income and allocation of resources among the population. Another purpose of taxation is to address negative social behaviour for example: tobacco is taxed, to discourage smoking. Taxation has the potential of ensuring good state-society relations and representation through accountability and good governance which ultimately strengthens the social contract between governments and citizens. The government of Uganda is working towards raising the tax to GDP ratio (presently at 13.5%) by 0.5% each year, but so far this has not been realised. The government has therefore amended the tax laws and introduced technical measures to improve revenue collection and administration, involving more control and internet-based actions. However, increasing the percentage further in a fair and just way, still remains a challenge with the fact that the tax payers have limited say in how they are taxed.

Furthermore, the tax regime is also oriented towards consumption taxes particularly Value Added Tax (VAT) and excise duty rather than personal or corporate income taxes which only account for about 27% of the tax revenues. Taxation in Uganda is still perceived by common citizens as complex and an issue best left to experts. A 2010 study conducted by SEATINI Uganda, established that Uganda is faced with a number of challenges in raising revenue and these include the following:

• The biggest population of the workforce is found in agriculture or in small and informal enterprises which makes it difficult to impose taxes
• Tax evasion and avoidance practices contribute greatly to shrinking the country’s tax base
• The limited capacity of revenue collecting agencies both at central and local levels.
• Poor quality of basic data

All these challenges are compounded by a general limited discussion among the different stakeholders (Government, Civil Society, Media and the General Public) on tax issues and the contribution that taxes have on poverty eradication and sustainable development. Also, vast resources are ‘lost’ through taxes that are not collected, but are either avoided, evaded or simply never find their way into the treasuries. Therefore in order to realise increased income and wealth among citizens, the tax debate and discussion should go beyond policy makers and government and have citizens at the fore front.

Media is important in promoting transparency and accountability by bringing out taxation and governance issues into the public domain. The media can play a pivotal role in raising awareness on tax matters and provide a platform for citizens to express their views and promote good governance in the way tax revenues are managed.

OBJECTIVE OF THE AWARD:

The overall objective of this award is to encourage journalists interest, oversight and reporting on tax policies and practices. Specifically:

• To popularize tax as a viable and sustainable source of financing development
• It also aims at highlighting the critical gaps in the taxation system and denounce deliberate causes of tax evasion, injustice and corruption in the country.

ELIGIBILITY: The award is open to all Ugandan journalists who have an interest in taxation and governance issues in Uganda particularly from print, radio and television. The period under consideration is April 2012- March 2013. The award will consider, tv and radio news features, articles/opinions.

SUBMISSION: Interested candidates should send their entries of published work (articles, c.ds, etc) with their bylines by 2nd April 2013 at 17:00hrs

AWARD CATEGORIES:

There are three categories of the awards:

• Best Print
• Best Radio
• Best Television

The award ceremony will be in April 2013. (A specific date will be communicated)

The entries should be sent to SEATINI UGANDA OFFICES. Plot 69, Bukoto street, Kamwokya or by email. Entries received after the deadline will not be considered.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

For queries/ submissions: nbusingye@seatini.org or nbusingye@gmail.com or nregina@seatini.org cc: seatini@infocom.co.ug .

Website: http://www.seatini.org

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