By Ben Ssebuguzi
The catchphrase “Profit before people” refers to a business culture where profits are prioritised over the well-being of other stakeholders. When profits come first the causality is often people and it comes at the cost of the wellbeing of our people. That is why before you establish any project, it must have an Environmental Impact Assessment.
What companies that put profit above people fail to understand is that their profit comes from customers who interact with them almost on a daily basis for sales. Corporate Social responsibility is a business model that helps a company be socially accountable to itself, its stakeholders and the public. This brings in the ethics of paying taxes.
Companies with good governance should have a system of rules, practices and values which control the company. These practices encourage transparency in terms of paying taxes.
It is disheartening to learn that in 2023, Airtel had issues of social media declaration with URA. In the same vein, the name of MTN is also surfacing. This means that they do not appreciate President Yoweri Kaguta Museven’s endless investment in people through human capital development like UPE, health, and security among others which makes Uganda a profitable market for telecoms.
This means that if telecoms do not declare all their taxes as due, they would not only be cheating Ugandans but also themselves because the government will not have the capacity to build a critical mass of consumers who know how to operate a phone handset.
Furthermore, wealth creation strategies by President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni like PDM, Emyooga, ONC self-empowerment kits, and industrial skilling hubs end up helping these telecoms to make abnormal profits through mobile money, data and airtime because a poor person can not engage in the buying and selling of goods in the economy.
In conclusion, the telecoms should therefore know that their choice to refuse to pay taxes is trying to cut the hand that feeds them. They should stop being sticky via paying our taxes but appreciate that we are proud of supporting them given the other investments they make in our economy.
The writer is an economist and Head of Research at Office of the NRM National Chairman (ONC) Kyambogo
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