“Accounting officers are advised to make adequate provisions under the item for vehicle maintenance to cater for the cost of new registration and the change of the existing number plates for both motor vehicles and motorcycles in their respective votes,” he said.

Ms. Susan Kataike, the ministry’s principal public relations officer when asked on the same said. “This registration will follow the driver licensing system, whereby Uganda Revenue Authority will collect the money and remit it to the consolidated account. The auditor general will audit the accounts and after that government will know how to pay the company. The money is not going directly to the company,”

Uganda has an estimated number of vehicles close to 2.4 million and more than 1.4 million motorcycles. If each one of them register afresh, that would be a collection in of 2.8 trillion.

David Musoke, secretary  of the Amalgamated Transport and General Workers’ union predicts that this will only increase transport fares Stretching the already crying Ugandan to more poverty. He also pointed out countries like South Africa that rolled out digital number plates yet still have very high crime rate in the urban areas suggesting that this isn’t the solution to crime except government just needs more revenue.

The details on how the exercise will run are still hanging.

Courtesy photo.