Singer turned Politician, Kyagulanyi Ssentamu alias Bobi Wine has finally come out to address the claims that President Museveni Waived some taxes on his armoured Vehicle which he imported in 2021.
At the beginning of 2021, the National Unity platforms president imported a brand new Toyota Land Cruiser, which was an armoured Vehicle.
After the car entered the country, there were allegations that the Uganda taxing body ( URA) had imposed heavy taxes on it which later President Museveni ordered to be waived.
However, over yesterday via his Socials, Bobi Wine clarified the allegations stressing that they were malicious attempts aiming at tarnishing his reputation as he disclosed that his Vehicle was legally imported and went through all the required legal procedures. Here is Bobi Wine’s full statement on his bulletproof vehicle and the talk of 370M;
“Out of ignorance and sheer malice, some regime apologists, in response to our hard stance on corruption, have deliberately and repeatedly tried to drive the following false narratives:
1. That Museveni ‘forgave us’ some taxes on the bulletproof vehicle.
2. That I was paid a gratuity of 370m when I left Parliament.
1. On the first issue, that bulletproof vehicle was legally imported and subjected to all legal processes. We had brought it under someone else’s name because we knew how they would react if they immediately knew it was Bobi Wine’s car. It was taken to the Directorate of Interpol in Kololo and they fully cleared it. It was then taken to the forensics department of police in Naguru, and they too cleared it. Then we took it to URA and they did their own independent verification and assessed the relevant tax of 88,612,027/= which we paid in full.
For several months, regime authorities raised no issue whatsoever. It wasn’t until we transferred the vehicle into my name that they panicked and tried to look for every reason to impound it. First, they claimed that bulletproof vehicles require the clearance of the Ministry of Defence, but there was no law to back this claim. After that, they wrote to us claiming that it was undervalued. They claimed that when the police first inspected it, they did not realize it was bullet-proof!!! You can imagine! They then asked us to hand it back to them, which we did in April 2021.
Also, following the discovery that it was my car, they sacked the URA, Interpol and Forensics staff who cleared the vehicle. Some of them were even summoned by CMI for interrogation and detained. The man in whose name the car was imported had to run away from the country after receiving numerous threats.
We immediately sued the Commissioner General of URA through our late brother, counsel Wameli Anthony. (Civil Suit No. 67 of 2021). It is then that they wrote back to us claiming that the car was undervalued. They claimed that instead of the 88,612,027/= initially assessed, they should have charged 337,698,776.25/= (Over three hundred million shillings).
ON THE BULLET PROOF VEHICLE AND THAT TALK OF "370M"
Out of ignorance and sheer malice, some regime apologists, in response to our hard stance on corruption, have deliberately and repeatedly tried to drive the following false narratives:
1. That Museveni 'forgave us' some taxes… pic.twitter.com/CzklDrDbBm
— BOBI WINE (@HEBobiwine) March 6, 2024
As everyone can see, if the car belonged to any other Ugandan, they would never have asked for any extra money or even asked to re-inspect the vehicle. We believe that after realizing that this was my vehicle, they wanted to re-examine it and understand its features (or even plant some devices in there). No wonder, when they took it away, it was subjected to inspection by SFC and CMI operatives.
Anyway, we applied for review of this outrageous tax in accordance with the law and issued a notice to also sue them before the Tax Appeals Tribunal. After more than two months from the time they impounded it, they wrote to us returning the vehicle, and because they are a bunch of politicians doing Museveni’s bidding, they claimed it was him who instructed them to hand it over. Even then, they claimed that the imposed tax was still outstanding, perhaps out of shame. They have never followed it up again because they know they had no legal basis whatsoever.
Therefore, MUSEVENI DID NOT FORGIVE US ANY TAX ON THAT VEHICLE. URA simply had no legal basis to impound it!
