Bobi Wine denies claims of President Museveni waiving taxes on his armoured vehicle, parades evidence.
At the beginning of 2021, Bobi Wine imported a brand new Toyota Land Cruiser, which was an armoured vehicle.
After the car was imported, there were claims that the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) imposed heavy taxes on the vehicle, which President Museveni ordered to be waived.
Contrary to these claims, Bobi Wine has now revealed that these allegations were simply malicious attempts to tarnish his reputation. According to Bobi Wine, the bulletproof vehicle was legally imported and went through all the necessary legal procedures.
He further explains that they registered the vehicle under someone else’s name because they were aware of how the government would react if they knew it belonged to Bobi Wine. The vehicle underwent clearance at the Directorate of Interpol in Kololo and was fully approved. It was then taken to the forensics department of the police in Naguru, where it also received clearance. Finally, it was taken to the URA, where an independent verification was conducted, and the relevant tax of Ugx 88,612,027/= was assessed and paid in full.
For several months, government authorities did not raise any concerns regarding the vehicle. It was only when the vehicle was transferred under Bobi Wine’s name that they began searching for reasons to impound it.
Initially, they claimed that bulletproof vehicles required clearance from the Ministry of Defence, but there was no legal basis for this claim. Subsequently, they sent a letter stating that the vehicle was undervalued. They argued that during the initial police inspection, they did not realize it was bulletproof. As a result, they requested the vehicle to be returned, which Bobi Wine complied with in April 2021.
In response, Bobi Wine and his team filed a lawsuit against the Commissioner General of URA through their late counsel, Wameli Anthony (Civil Suit No. 67 of 2021). It was then that the URA wrote back, claiming that the vehicle was undervalued. They argued that instead of the initial assessment of 88,612,027/=, they should have charged 337,698,776.25/= (over three hundred million shillings).
Bobi Wine asserts that he subsequently submitted an application for the reconsideration of the exorbitant tax in compliance with the law. Additionally, he issued a notice to initiate legal action against them before the Tax Appeals Tribunal.
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More than two months after confiscating the vehicle, they sent him a letter returning it. However, due to their affiliation with Museveni and their political agenda, they falsely attributed the decision to hand it over to him. Furthermore, they continued to insist that the imposed tax remained unpaid, possibly due to their own embarrassment. However, they have since failed to pursue the matter any further, as they are well aware that they lacked any legal grounds to support their claims.
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