More important, it would be an economically sound act. Uganda simply cannot afford the proposed tax cuts. Poll taxes happen to be the lifeblood of local governments, which are a cornerstone of Uganda's fairly advanced decentralisation programme. Reducing them would significant cripple many local government and retard the country's tortuous progress towards good governance. Eliminating cost sharing would also be devastating.
Cost sharing is a form of user fees.
Through cost sharing, students and patients in cash-strapped vocational schools and local hospitals foot part of the wage bill for the otherwise grossly underpaid instructors and medical personnel. Without cost sharing, the schools and hospitals would simply collapse due to lack of qualified manpower. Furthermore, Uganda's national development and recurrent budgets are currently highly dependent on donor support. That situation is both unsustainable and undesirable. A reduction in the country's internal revenue collection would exacerbate the dependency and alarm the increasingly jittery donor community.