Minister, Attorney General at odds over ‘music tax’ on new p

KAMPALA – Gender and tradition state minister Peace Regis Mutuuzo has backed a proposal by a piece of musicians led by Mawokota North MP Hillary Kiyaga aka Dr Hilderman searching for to impose a levy on digital transferable devices.

Digital transferable devices check with units able to storing, copying or transferring digital content material, reminiscent of telephones, laptops, tablets, flash disks, exterior arduous drives and reminiscence playing cards.

She echoed this on Tuesday, August 12, 2025, throughout an interface with the Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee, chaired by Bukhooli North MP Stephen Bakka Mugabi (NRM), which is at present scrutinising the Copyright and Neighbouring Rights (Amendment) Bill 2025.

Private copying levy

The surcharge referred to as the non-public copying levy was omitted from the draft Bill earlier than the House committee, ostensibly over considerations raised by Attorney General Kiryowa Kiwanuka.

Kiwanuka, whereas showing earlier than the identical committee, mentioned Cabinet had noticed that it might drive up gadget costs. Which alone would possibly undermine the Government’s Internet growth agenda.

“We discussed the issue of the levy, and we came to one conclusion. A phone, USB and all these gadgets are not used only for copyright. I could use my phone for a whole year without playing music on it. But this tool is a universal tool being used by everyone. Now this levy will have the effect of increasing the cost of this product,” Kiwanuka argued.

However, whereas talking on August 12, Mutuuzo distanced herself from the discuss that that they had agreed at Cabinet degree.

“It is something we have not agreed on as Government. While the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs feels that it will discourage, they are only looking at the academic area and even the argument of stating that somebody is not interested in listening to Music, but if the other person on the other side of the call registered a caller back tune and you suddenly call or pick his phone call, won’t you listen to the music?” she posed.

“Even if you are not interested, you have listened to the music and, therefore, you have taken in the content. And I don’t think there are gadgets where we don’t read some people’s scripts; they are not common. So, instead of addressing the character, let us address the concern,” Mutuuzo added.

She argued that the cost was an important mechanism to compensate rights holders for the widespread and unmonitored copyright for his or her works on private units.

“Each gadget pays a levy, that’s what we propose, once in its lifetime, at the time of import or manufacture. The levy applies to the capacity of the gadget to copy, store or share protected content. And not the character of the person that will use it,”

“We recommend that we insert a new provision to establish a private copy renumeration system. This system will apply a modest levy on devices and media used for reproduction, such as smartphones, tablets and hard drives at the time of their import or manufacture. The fee will be based on the storage capacity of the device,” Mutuuzo instructed.

The aforementioned levy shall be paid as soon as within the lifetime of a gadget.  According to her, this can create a sustainable funding stream for the artistic sector to make sure that the artistes are pretty compensated for personal copying that’s tough to trace and regulate on a person foundation.

Adding that it’s a confirmed mannequin that has existed in international locations reminiscent of Kenya, Ghana, Malawi, Tanzania, Botswana and Nigeria.

“The revenue collected would be distributed to the artistes and rights holders. A portion of the revenue will be used to set up a cultural fund needed to support emerging artistes,” she defined.

Whereas the preliminary proposal was to assist rising artistes by grants, Mutuuzo instructed MPs they now consider the main focus needs to be on establishing studios and cultural centres.

Stakeholders communicate out

The transfer has additionally attracted the backing of specialists within the artistic area, reminiscent of Charles Batambuze, the manager director of Uganda Reproduction Rights Organisation (URRO), who final week instructed MPs that this 12 months, Tanzania plans to distribute its first royalties from the identical.

“Reality of life for us as creatives is that when you create a piece of work, for instance, a comedy skit and share it with one person. By the time you know it the entire market that would have paid you for this work has already watched the skit for free. So, the question is who pays the creator and what benefit does the creator gain from such use?” Batambuze posed.

“I also have this example of the late Maj. (rtd) John Kazoora. When he passed on, his book became very popular, and there are about 15 million handsets. We can say 15 million digital phone handsets received his book for free. How will his estate benefit from such exploitation? Because none of those people will go to the book shop to buy that book,” he additional inquired.  

All mentioned and finished, Sarah Kyazze Namulondo, a member of the legendary Afrigo Band, which shall be celebrating 50 years mid this month, opined that the artistic economic system continues to be crawling due to the absence of a way more pragmatic legislation.

“I know for a fact that things like the printers, photocopiers, schools use one book and print two hundred or a thousand copies for their students. The writers cannot benefit when they only sell one book, when they could have sold a thousand. That is theft and it is being done in Government Organisations and schools because there is no law to say we need make sure that the creator earns something,” Namulondo identified.

“We need to remove that envy against creators because it is one of the things standing in the way of creating laws that will support creative people,” she summed. 

Alternative income streams

However, Uganda being a rustic the place residents typically should be pushed like mules to just accept insurance policies, Counsel Norman Mbabazi from Busingye and Company Advocates argues that if the copying levy is just too arduous a cut price, it might be useful for the legislation to obviously specify who’s liable for paying the communication to the general public license.

In the principal legislation, “communication to the public” is outlined because the operation by which sounds or photographs or each sounds and pictures are transmitted to the general public, whether or not by broadcast, efficiency or different means. The provision excluded a household setting or operate.

“We’re talking about people who own hotels, get a single transmission from dstv and then re-transmit within the various rooms that they have. Then they are paying a single subscription, but they have 100 rooms, which is 100 guests. Imagine there was no dstv, I want to believe those hotels would be shunned and the reason why people are going there is because of the content we create,” he added.

Big tech

Mbabazi mentioned this income might be raised from public transport (generally referred to as Kamunye), resorts, bars, radio stations, and TV stations. He added that whereas some video streaming apps like TikTok aren’t based mostly in Uganda, the prices might be handed on to telecom corporations as properly.

“The other day, UCC published and said that Ugandans spend shillings 55 billion daily on TikTok. TikTok alone raises shillings 22 trillion annually from data purchases. But what is without content? We are suggesting that within the law we need to find a way to put these so-called big telecoms at a point where they contribute towards content creation as well as a proper payment towards creators. We are not going to find TikTok here,” he cited.

“If you calculate how much money Ugandans spend on TikTok, WhatsApp, Instagram, YouTube, it is colossal, it comes to about shillings 38 trillion. If I am not mistaken, that is a very big portion of our national budget. So, these guys are enjoying all this money and are not bothered about the content creators,” Mbabazi said.

Taking this under consideration, he argued that if telecom corporations have been severe, they’d make investments considerably in content material creators to spice up web customers from 14.2 million upwards as a win-win answer.