Publication

This paper discusses the Graduated Personal Tax (GPT) paid to local government in Uganda. The author describes that although the GPT caused numerous tax riots throughout the past century, it has only been since the mid-1990s that competitive presidential elections have provided people with an effective way to express their dissatisfaction with it. The paper details how greater political competition was instrumental in almost dismantling the GPT in 2001 and finally abolishing it in 2005. The author states that positive governance effects should follow from the abolishment of the GPT in Uganda and that generally coercive approaches to taxation should become more difficult to sustain with greater political competition.