Uganda Social Media and Mobile Money Taxes Survey Report
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Uganda Social Media and Mobile Money Taxes Survey Report Conducted by Whitehead Communications Ltd. Inquiries: [email protected] Table of Contents Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 4 Executive Summary ................................................................................................................................ 5 Methodology and Sample Bias .......................................................................................................... 8 Sample Size ............................................................................................................................................ 8 Methodology ........................................................................................................................................... 8 Social Media Sample ......................................................................................................................... 9 Face-To-Face Interviews .............................................................................................................. 10 Data Cleaning ..................................................................................................................................... 11 Results by Question ............................................................................................................................. 12 Age ........................................................................................................................................................... 12 Gender .................................................................................................................................................... 13 Respondent location ....................................................................................................................... 14 Breakdown by region ................................................................................................................. 14 Breakdown by district ................................................................................................................. 14 Education .............................................................................................................................................. 18 Occupation ........................................................................................................................................... 19 Sample social media users .......................................................................................................... 20 Current social media users .......................................................................................................... 21 Use of social media “OTT” platforms ..................................................................................... 22 Method of social media access after tax implementation ............................................ 23 Tax payment (dependency) ........................................................................................................ 24 What people use social media for in Uganda .................................................................... 25 Ugandan e-commerce .................................................................................................................... 25 Impact of OTT tax on Ugandan e-commerce .................................................................... 27 Inconvenience of OTT tax ............................................................................................................ 29 Inconvenience of Mobile Money tax ....................................................................................... 30 % Sample using Mobile Money ................................................................................................. 31 Change in Mobile Money use after tax implementation ............................................... 32 Mobile Money use breakdown by gender ....................................................................... 33 Change in Mobile Money use by Mobile Money agents .......................................... 33 % Sample that are Mobile Money agents ............................................................................ 34 Inquiries: [email protected] Mobile Money agents breakdown by gender ................................................................ 35 Impact of Mobile Money tax on Ugandan businesses ................................................... 35 Public support / opposition of the social media tax ......................................................... 38 Public support / opposition of the Mobile Money tax ...................................................... 39 Ugandan public opinion on taxes in general ...................................................................... 40 Acknowledgements .............................................................................................................................. 41 ANNEX A: Ugandan e-commerce ................................................................................................ 42 ANNEX B: Impact of OTT tax on Ugandan e-commerce ................................................. 68 ANNEX C: Impact of Mobile Money tax on Ugandan businesses ............................. 100 ANNEX D: Ugandan public opinion on taxes ........................................................................ 136 Inquiries: [email protected] Introduction On Friday the 1st of June, 2018, the Parliament of Uganda passed a 32.4 trillion shilling 2018/2019 budget1. It included a new 200 shilling (~0.05 USD) tax “per user per day of access” on “over the top services”2 (OTTs) previously known by the general public as social media. The same budget introduced an additional tax on mobile money transactions “of receiving, payments and withdrawals” valued at 1% of the value of these transactions3. These taxes came into effect at 12am on the 1st of July, 2018. Many Ugandans found themselves instantly blocked from accessing WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other OTT services, and others were shocked to realize that increasingly popular4 mobile money payments had increased in price. These developments were followed by countless public statements in opposition and in favour of the new taxes, including one opposing the taxes by the ICT Association of Uganda (ICTAU) released on July 4th, and two missives released by President Museveni on July 4th and 12th. A group of activists filed a petition in the Constitutional Court seeking nullification of the OTT tax the following Monday5. A campaign using the hashtag #ThisTaxMustGo held a demonstration against the taxes on July 11th. This series of events dominated the headlines and talk shows in Uganda and attracted the attention of international media, as well as industry stakeholders and policy makers around the world. On July 11th, Ugandan Prime Minister Ruhakana Rugunda announced that the Government of Uganda would review these taxes. On July 13th at 7pm, Whitehead Communications released a survey to gather public opinion on the impact of the taxes in order to contribute a resource for evidence-based research in their review. The survey was closed at 5pm on July 16th, collecting 2,918 responses (after data clean) and generating the following data for free use by the public at large. You are welcome to build on these findings, which we have released quickly. 1 Parliament of Uganda. “Parliament passes shs32.4 trillion National Budget”. Web. 16 July, 2018. https://www.parliament.go.ug/news/1517/parliament-passes-shs324-trillion-national-budget 2 The Excise Duty (Amendment) Act, 2018, defines over the top services as “the transmission or receipt of voice or messages over the internet protocol network and includes access to virtual private networks;” and the levy is listed in 13(b) as “Ushs 200 per user per day of access” in The Excise Duty (Amendment) Act, 2018. 3 The Excise Duty (Amendment) Act, 2018. 13(f). 4 Ssetimba, I. J. “Mobile Money in Uganda”. Bank of Uganda. March, 2016. Web. 16 July, 2018. https://www.theigc.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/3.-Ivan-Ssettimba-Bank-of-Uganda.pdf 5 CyberLine together with Daniel Bill Ohio, Silver Kayondo and Raymond Mujuni. Inquiries: [email protected] Executive Summary The Uganda Social Media and Mobile Money Taxes Survey – a public opinion survey on the impact of new taxes on social media and Mobile Money – was conducted by Whitehead Communications in Uganda between the 13th to 16th of July, 2018, with the purpose of serving as a resource in a consultative and evidence-based review of social media and mobile money taxes. Results were collected both online and through face-to-face interviews across the country, gathering 3,015 responses (more on the methodology and sample in the full report). This report has been expedited to be released within 36 hours of closing the survey in order to provide timely information to policy makers, concerned parties and the general public. This public opinion survey produced a sizeable sample with an observable demographic profile. 72% were resided in Central Uganda, 15% in Western Uganda, 8% in Northern Uganda and 5% in Eastern Uganda, with 93 districts represented overall. Most surveyed respondents were between the ages of 18 and 35 (29% 18 – 24, 41% 25 – 30,15% 31 – 35). 74% of respondents were male and 26% were female. Most respondents were