Over Speeding To Cost You UGX 2 Million Fine As Museveni Signs New Traffic &Road Safety Law

President Museveni has assented to the Traffic and Road Safety Amendment Bill 2023 to make it law enforceable in Uganda.

According to the new law that government says is aimed at enforcing sanity on Ugandan roads, driving past the prescribed speed limit will earn a motorist a shs2 million fine or a jail sentence of up to three years or both.

Section 119A(3) of this law stipulates that a person who fails to comply with the speed limit commits an offence and is liable, on conviction, to a fine not exceeding 100 currency points or imprisonment not exceeding three years, or both.

One currency point is equivalent to shs20,000.

The speed limit in Uganda depends on the area and the type of car one is driving.

For instance, on highways; motorcycles and saloon cars are not supposed to run beyond  100km per hour on paved roads and  80km per hour on gravel.

On the other side, vans, pick-ups and trucks carrying less than 3500kg are not supposed to exceed  80km per hour on paved roads  and 60 km per hour on gravel roads.

Mini-buses or taxis are not permitted to exceed 80km per hour on paved roads and 60km per hour on gravel roads whereas buses and coaches are not allowed to exceed 80km per hour on paved rural roads and 60km per hour on grave roads.

The president also assented to five other bills including the Lotteries and Gaming (Amendment) Bill 2023 which increases the tax rate on gaming activities from 20 to 30 percent to generate more revenue for government but will on the other hand have significant impact in the gaming industry.

Museveni also assented to the Value added Tax (Amendment) Bill 2023 in which government will starting tomorrow, July, tax platforms like Netflix, Amazon, Twitter and Facebook among others as long as they source income from Uganda.

According to this law, if customer of those platforms which don’t have physical presence in Uganda uses them to sell or deal in any product in Uganda, they will be taxed five percent of their gross sales within Uganda.

Also assented to is the convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters Bill, 2023, the Supplementary Appropriation Bill, 2023 and the  Appropriation Bill 2023.

All the new laws become effective tomorrow, July, 1, 2023.