Uganda

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Return to homepage  |  Last updated: 15 April, 2020

Effective 1 April 2020, the country is under a total lock down, other than essential workers such as medical personnel, all the other persons are required to stay at home for 14 days. There is also a curfew from 7.00pm to 6.30 am. These conditions are to be reviewed after expiry of 14 days.

Click here to see a comprehensive summary of jurisdictional tax measures and government reliefs in response to COVID-19.

• In support of the Government of Uganda’s interventions to combat the effect of COVID-19, the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) has put in place measures to ease the cash flow burden of affected employers/ businesses in the private sector.
• In its notice, NSSF indicated that with effect from 31st March 2020, it will allow Ugandan businesses facing economic distress to reschedule their NSSF contributions for three (3) months without accumulating penalty.
• Affected businesses are advised to send an email to amnesty@nssfug.org to work out the detailed modalities.
• A business that does not apply for this amnesty will be expected to continue honouring its statutory obligation to remit NSSF contributions by the 15th day of every month.

BOU issued a communication on 20 March 2020 titled ‘Measures to mitigate the economic impact of COVID-19

BOU committed to undertake the following:

Ensure financial institutions supervised by BOU continue to operate effectively;

• Ensure that contingency plans by financial institutions guarantee the safety of customers and staff;
• Intervene in the foreign exchange market to smoothen out excess volatility arising from the global financial markets;
• Put in a place a mechanism to minimise the likelihood of sound business going into insolvency due to lack of credit;
• Provide exceptional liquidity assistance for a period of up to one year to financial institutions supervised by BoU that may require it;
• Waive limitations on restructuring of credit facilities at financial institutions that may be at risk of going into distress due to the COVID-19 pandemic;
• Continue to engage Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) and commercial banks to:
  • further reduce fees on mobile money transactions and other digital payment charges in order to limit the use of cash and bank branch visits.
  • Increase daily transaction and wallet size limits for mobile money transactions.

• Uganda is on total lockdown
• Uganda Tax Alert - URA's Business Continuity Measures in the wake of COVID 19 (PDF 76 KB)
• Uganda Alert - NSSF Extends Amnesty to Ugandan Businesses Facing Economic (PDF 69 KB)

Tax: Peter Kyambadde – pkyambadde@kpmg.com