The chief administrative Officer Kyenjonjo district has disagreed with councilors over a move to deduct their allowances to pay Uganda Revenue Authority. The tax body demands 300 million shillings from the Kyenjonjo district in accumulated Pay As You Earn (PAYE) tax arrears. It accumulated after the district failed to deduct the PAYE tax from the councilors sitting allowances since 2006.
According to the local government act, the district is supposed to deduct 30 percent from the sitting allowances of each councilor for PAYE. The councilors in Kyenjojo are paid 140,000 shillings per council session. But since 2006 the district has been reluctant to deduct the money, forcing the tax body to warn the district that it would freeze its bank accounts, until the debt is cleared.
In a letter addressed to the councilors dated June 29th 2012, Sam Katehangwa, the Chief Administrative Officer Kyenjonjo district says in a bid to clear the debt, the district will deduct the allowances of each of the 18 councilor with effect from August. Katehangwa says the former councilors who lost in the elections will have to be traced and ordered to refund the money. He says that those who fail to pay the money will be taken to courts of law.
The newly elected councilors, who were not in the past council, will be exempted from paying the debt. In a telephone interview with URN on Monday, Katehangwa blamed Catherine Amal, the former CAO for not remitting PAYE. He says they are under pressure from URA to pay the money or else the district accounts will be frozen which he says would affect their operations.
However, the councilors have rejected the move by the CAO saying the district should meet the costs.
Ruth Katabarwa, the female councilor for Kagarale Sub County says that she will mobilize fellow councilors to reject the move. According to Katabarwa, it will be unfair if the allowances are deducted and yet what they earn is not enough.
Richard Bandagiire, the councilor for Katooke Sub County says that the debt should have been included in the 2012/2013 budgetary estimates. Bandagiire claims that for the past three years they have been reminding the district to deduct the money but nothing was done. He threatened to mobilize fellow councilors to boycott council sittings if their allowances are deducted.
