To FUFA esteemed fans, there have been raised voices over the charges at the gates for the Uganda Vs Zambia game on 13th October 2012.
As FUFA, Lawrence Mulindwa, theUgandasoccer president says, “we are very sensitive to the fans of the Uganda Cranes but we can only raise our issues in a more calm manner because may be there are matters you may not know that exist we need you to know now.” He says that FUFA is charging 40,000 shillings. FUFA says that the money includes 7200 shillings kept for Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) as VAT.
It is not money taken by Lawrence Mulindwa but Government through URA. FIFA and CAF take 6% or another 2400 shillings and this is 10,000 already off from 40,000 shillings. In the past, FUFA has been paying VAT on the stadium hire expence, but now URA has registered FUFA for VAT and URA agents are at the gates to collect serial numbers of each ticket and compute their money which they promptly collect.
FUFA also pays the Uganda Police for Security and Pay Namboole for the Stadium Hire. In the last 6 months, FUFA has transported the national teams (Contingent of 25) to 9 different African countries by air. The countries include Congo Brazzaville, Ghana, Mozambique, Botswana, Angola, Egypt, Southern Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia.
We think Ugandans should now consider asking the Government to waive the taxes or Namboole to be used without charges or not to pay the police to provide security for Ugandans who are already paying taxes elsewhere.
Uganda is currently the only country in the world where the Government collects taxes instead of financing the national soccer matches.
Ends