Manufacturers want to excise duties on their products harmonised.
PIC: Simon Kaheru, Minister Werikhe Kafabusa, Mukwano’s Tony Gadhoke and Morgan Bonna
The Minister of State for Trade, Michael Werikhe Kafabusa, has pledged that the government will work with the Uganda Water and Juice Manufacturers Association (UWJMA) to establish and implement a National Policy on Packaged and Bottled Water, to protect the industry and consumers in Uganda.
We will work in tandem to make sure the industry grows, and that we get rid of counterfeit bottled water products and illegal players,” Kafabusa said.
The Minister received a brief on UWJMA activities from Chairperson Tony Gadhoke also the Mukwano Group CEO, Secretary Morgan Bonna, and committee member Simon Kaheru, at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives Headquarters in Kampala.
We recognise that harmonising excise duties will ease your costs of production and make Uganda more competitive regionally,” he said.
The association’s secretary, Morgan Bonna, explained that the tax disparity put Uganda at a major disadvantage while allowing other countries to export bottled water to Uganda.
UWJMA Chairman Tony Gadhoke assured the Minister that the Association members were focused on producing safe, high-quality, regulated bottled water in the interest of consumers.
“Plastics Recycling Industries will work with all association members to establish and run more collection centres so that used water bottles do not find their way into landfills or into the environment, but are instead crushed and converted into raw materials for the production of plastic products for re-use,” he said.