By TV10 Gano Mazima
Shortly after condemning Kuku Foods Uganda Ltd, the franchise Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) in Uganda, to a humongous 16bn Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) Ta Tribunal verdict, following years of reported financial losses and a contested audit, the same tribunal has shockingly has quashed a Shs 1.1 billion tax assessment by the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) against Premier Recruitment Limited, ruling that the company was not liable for Pay As You Earn (PAYE) and withholding tax on facilitation payments made to migrant workers owned by Rajiv Ruparelia.
The Tax tribunal in its findings claims that between March 2018 and February 2022, URA reassessed the company’s tax filings, slashing Kuku Foods’ declared losses from Shs16.8 billion to Shs8.3 billion, citing that it had under declared its income and non-deductible expenses.
This new slumped bill, threatens to disable the operations of KFC , which in the recent past has expended to several areas in the country.
This Kuku foods, claims may result into its closing down of the new outlets that will eventually lead to loss of hundreds of jobs and its possible its close of bushiness.
In a Shockingly but not surprising , same tribunal a case involving Mr. Rajiv Ruparelia, son to businessman mogul Dr.Sudhir Ruparalia, waived a Shs 1.1 billion tax assessment by the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) against Premier Recruitment Limited, ruling that the company was not liable for Pay As You Earn (PAYE) and withholding tax on facilitation payments made to migrant workers citing that the facilitation payments were not taxable income and that there was no employer-employee relationship between Premier Recruitment and the migrant workers sent overseas.
This development according to an economic observer and analyst ( who preferred anonymity) , is a wrong decision that leaves a lot to be desired.
The same analyst argues that for business sense to have seemed to be working in the tribunal decisions , Kuku Foods Uganda LTD , would have been accorded the same privilege, since KFC is still directly employing Ugandans locally and yet Premier Recruitment seems to partially run business of recent.
