Members of Parliament call for greater transparency and accountability in granting of tax waivers.
The legislators also wondered whether the current criteria is not abused calling for evidence that companies benefiting from tax relief actually deliver the promised jobs and investments.
The concerns were raised during debate on a statement by the Minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, Hon. Henry Musasizi on the criteria and procedure for accessing tax waivers and remission under Section 43 of the Tax Procedures Code Act.
Musasizi told the House chaired by Deputy Speaker, Thomas Tayebwa on Tuesday, 18 August 2026 that tax remission is intended for exceptional cases where continued recovery of a tax liability would no longer serve the public interest because of hardship, impossibility, undue difficulty or the excessive cost of recovery.
He said the process involves assessment by the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA), review by the Ministry of Finance and ultimately, approval by Parliament.
But MPs questioned whether the safeguards are sufficient to prevent abuse.
Mbale City Industrial Division Member of Parliament, Hon. Karim Masaba raised concerns about the implementation of the waiver system adding that some taxpayers are granted relief despite apparently having the means to pay.
“When you look at the hardship, it did not come out clear under what hardship,” Masaba said.
He cited cases involving rental tax where taxpayers had reportedly sought relief on grounds of illness while continuing to own income generating properties in Kampala.
“Someone has been sick for a while and the minister states that this person is under difficult conditions but the person owns properties in Kampala and those properties are still earning. So, why would they bring such a waiver?” he asked.
Masaba questioned the remission of Pay as You Earn (PAYE) arguing that employers collecting the tax are essentially holding employees’ money on behalf of government and should remit it to URA.
Deputy Speaker Tayebwa similarly questioned the logic of granting relief on withholding tax.
He wondered why a company would be granted an exemption where it had already withheld money that belonged to government.
Jinja South Division East MP, Hon. Paul Mwiru asked the minister to explain the criteria governing tax relief granted following presidential directives, commonly referred to as “blue letters”.
Kabweri County Representative, Hon. Patrick Wakida raised concerns about revenue losses arising from tax exemptions and waivers citing reports by the Auditor General and the Public Accounts Committee.
“Right from 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, it all talks about government losing revenue due to abuse of tax exemptions and waivers,” Wakida said.
He said that the ministry acknowledged that Shs1.3 trillion in waivers could not be accounted for in 2024/25.
The Leader of the Opposition, Hon.Joel Ssenyonyi said the minister’s statement was useful but still contained significant ambiguity particularly around what constitutes hardship.
“When you mention reasons like hardship, illness, inability, and all of these different things, they are ambiguous, and yet they should not be,” Ssenyonyi said.
Ssenyonyi called for post-waiver evaluations to determine whether the intended benefits were achieved.
“You need to establish these waivers that we allowed; what was the impact on the economy? Did they do what we intended?” he said.
Musasizi said the concerns raised by MPs demonstrated the importance of having controls at every stage of the waiver process.
He added that applications pass through URA, the Ministry of Finance and Parliament with the criteria applied at each stage where loopholes are flagged.
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