Skip to main content
  • News
  • Events
  • Blog
  • Search

Natural Resource Governance Institute

  • Topics
    Beneficial ownership
    Economic diversification
    Mandatory payment disclosure
    Revenue sharing
    Civic space
    Energy transition
    Measurement of environmental and social impacts
    Sovereign wealth funds
    Commodity prices
    Global initiatives
    Measurement of governance
    State-owned enterprises
    Contract transparency and monitoring
    Legislation and regulation
    Open data
    Subnational governance
    Coronavirus
    Licensing and negotiation
    Revenue management
    Tax policy and revenue collection
    Corruption
  • Approach
    • Stakeholders
      • Civil society actors
      • Government officials
      • Journalists and media
      • Parliaments and political parties
      • Private sector
    • Natural Resource Charter
    • Regional knowledge hubs
  • Countries
    NRGI Priority Countries
    Colombia
    Guinea
    Myanmar
    Tanzania
    Dem. Rep. of Congo
    Mexico
    Nigeria
    Tunisia
    Ghana
    Mongolia
    Peru
    Uganda
    OTHER COUNTRIES
  • Learning
    • Training
      • Residential training courses
        • Advanced
        • Executive
        • Anglophone Africa
        • Francophone Africa
        • Asia-Pacific
        • Eurasia
        • Latin America
        • Middle East and North Africa
      • Online training courses
        • Massive open online course (MOOC)
        • Interactive course: Petronia
      • Trainers' modules
        • (empty)
    • Primers
    • Glossary
  • Analysis & Tools
    • Publications
    • Tools
    • Economic models
  • About Us
    • What we do
      • 2020-2025 Strategy
      • Country prioritization
    • NRGI impact
    • Board of Directors
    • Advisory Council
    • Leadership team
    • Experts and staff
    • Careers and opportunities
    • Contact us
    • Financials
    • Grant-making
    • Privacy policy
  • News
  • Events
  • Blog

You are here

  1. Home
  2. Analysis & Tools
  3. Publications

The Fiscal Regime for Uganda’s Mining Sector: A Need for Reform?

Briefing
18 December 2018
Author
Thomas Scurfield
Download
The Fiscal Regime for Uganda’s Mining Sector: A Need for Reform? (PDF 1.04 MB)
Topics
Tax policy and revenue collection
Countries
Uganda
Stakeholders
Civil society actors, Government officials, Journalists and media, Parliaments and political parties, Private sector
Precepts
P4 What are Natural Resource Charter precepts?
Social Sharing

The Ugandan government has declared its intention to enact a new fiscal regime for the mining sector. This brief is a response to a request by the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development to review the prevailing regime and inform the government’s approach to revising it.

To attract much needed investment into the sector, the fiscal regime must be stable. It should therefore impose a tax burden that is neither too high nor too low.

Modeling of the current regime for a hypothetical gold project suggests that it has no critical weaknesses. It is not in urgent need of revision, and therefore the government could decide to focus its reform efforts on other areas. However, revising the fiscal regime may still be beneficial. While the regime appears to place a reasonable tax burden on larger, lower-cost mines, the higher tax burden faced by smaller, higher-cost mines could deter investment in these types of mines or encourage investors to request investment incentives from the government that lead to other challenges.

Average effective tax rate for model small mine with gold price of USD 1,300 per ounce

Considering these results, the author explores how the current regime could be revised to slightly reduce the tax burden imposed on small, high-cost mines, but without also reducing the tax burden imposed on larger, lower-cost mines. Making the regime more progressive in this way will require the government to compromise on at least one of its other likely objectives. The author concludes that of the four reforms analyzed, one that introduces either a variable rate royalty or a variable income tax could be the best option for Uganda.

This review is intended to merely demonstrate some of the options available to the government, however. The author only looked at one tax change at a time, and at only one version of that tax change. The author advises that the government evaluates the various possible combinations of tax changes before revising the regime.

The model and data used for this brief can be found here.

Related content

Countries Struggling with Governance Manage $1.2 Trillion in Resource Wealth

David Mihalyi, Anna Fleming
8 September 2017

Resource Governance Index: Sub-Saharan Africa Highlights

31 January 2019

The 2021 Resource Governance Index Research Process is Underway

Liz McGrath, Anna Fleming
13 July 2020

From Kampala to Budapest, and Back: A Ugandan Civil Society Leader Reflects on Lessons Learned

Don Bwesigye
19 May 2015

East Africa Oil and Gas Conference: Has it Gone Bust Before the Boom?

Event type: 
Conference
Tuesday, March 28, 2017 -
09:00 to 17:00
Washington, D.C.

Recent Tweets

  • NRGInstitute
    NRGInstitute
    @NRGInstitute
    Follow @NRGInstitute
    📢 NRGI’s governing board has named Suneeta Kaimal (@suneetajan) as the organization’s new president and CEO. Celebr… t.co/4ASu3oyTfe
    14 hours 29 min ago.
    Reply Retweet Favorite
  • NRGInstitute
    NRGInstitute
    @NRGInstitute
    Follow @NRGInstitute
    Did you miss the webinar about #gender justice in natural resource governance? Catch the recording of the event w… t.co/PH6YgagZ1m
    16 hours 44 min ago.
    Reply Retweet Favorite
Helping people to realize the benefits of their countries’ endowments of oil, gas and minerals.
Follow on Facebook Follow on Twitter Subscribe to Updates
  • Topics
    Beneficial ownership
    Civic space
    Commodity prices
    Contract transparency and monitoring
    Coronavirus
    Corruption
    Economic diversification
    Energy transition
    Global initiatives
    Legislation and regulation
    Licensing and negotiation
    Mandatory payment disclosure
    Measurement of environmental and social impacts
    Measurement of governance
    Open data
    Revenue management
    Revenue sharing
    Sovereign wealth funds
    State-owned enterprises
    Subnational governance
    Tax policy and revenue collection
  • Approach
    • Stakeholders
    • Natural Resource Charter
    • Regional knowledge hubs
  • Priority
    Countries
    • Colombia
    • Dem. Rep. of Congo
    • Ghana
    • Guinea
    • Mexico
    • Mongolia
    • Myanmar
    • Nigeria
    • Peru
    • Tanzania
    • Tunisia
    • Uganda
  • Learning
    • Training
    • Primers
  • Analysis & Tools
    • Publications
    • Tools
    • Economic models
  • About Us
    • What we do
    • NRGI impact
    • Board of Directors
    • Advisory Council
    • Leadership team
    • Experts and staff
    • Careers and opportunities
    • Contact us
    • Financials
    • Grant-making
    • Privacy policy
  • News
  • Blog
  • Events
  • Search