Michael Kafabusa the Minister of State for Trade has said government plans to establish and implement a National policy on packed and bottled water.
This is to protect the industry and consumers in Uganda.
Kafabusa on Friday speaking at the officials’ meeting of Uganda Water and Juice Manufacturers Association (UWJA) at Farmers house, said that government is to put in place a policy on bottled water as a commodity in the country.
“It is good you have an Association ready to work with government to implement this policy. We will work in tandem to make sure the industry grows and we get rid of counterfeit bottled water products”, says Kafabusa.
He noted that government would look into the concerns of legitimate manufacturers of bottled water including harmonising exercise duties on their products.
Uganda exerts a 10% exercise duty on bottled water whereas Tanzania levies 5% and Kenya charges no tax.
Morgan Bonna the Association secretary said the tax disparity put Uganda at a major disadvantage with other countries gaining a lot from exporting bottled water to Uganda.
“You will find bottled water produced in other countries being sold on super market shelves in Uganda but our water here which is the best quality cannot penetrate foreign markets”, says Bonna.
The Association says they are focused on producing safe, high quality, regulated bottle water for the benefit of consumers.
They explained that they would embark on wide scale plastics recycling exercise to deal with environmental concerns from discarded water bottle.
