Uganda is one of a handful of countries where pastoralism is active, a constant attribute to a demand for cattle on the international market. Reports from the Uganda Bureau of Statistics 2008 showed the national cattle herd was estimated to be 11.4 million cattle of which 2.5 million are attached to western region, 2.5 millio n in the eastern region, central region boasts 2.5 million, Karamoja sub-region produces 2.3 million cattle and the whole northern Uganda had a share of 1.3 million cattle yet all this attracts no tax.

Such a reality is against the backdrop of sweeping taxes to the lowest earners says economist Dr. Fred Muhumuza. “A cow has gone from 1.5 million to 2 million. There are people whom I have met and they boast of selling a thousand cows a year. Even if you are to lower that to 1 million per cow that’s 1 billion untaxed. A cow is not a small Nokia phone that you hide in your pocket and sneak via the police, it’s a big animal. And so if you are selling a thousand you are using the normal cattle markets. We know where these markets are, you are selling milk per day, you take it to the cooler, we know it, and there are records. Why don’t those people who are selling 2,000 liters or 6,000 liters of milk per day pay tax?” Said, Dr. Fred Muhumuza – Economist. He advised the government to further revise the exemption on the agricultural sub-sector. “Don’t tax the man who transports the cows on his truck and leaves the man who owns the cows on the truck. Both are not informal, they are clearly formal. But we know whom we are talking about here.”

The pastoralists in the central and western region are recorded to be the highest earners. It is estimated that a producer on average supplies 1,000 cattle and 1,000 liters of milk on the market. One head of cattle can attract 1 million shillings tax-free. In the next financial year, a number of tax proposals have been suggested that tend to burden the low-income earner where cattle keeping is not one of such.