Parliament has granted a tax waiver of Shs18 Billion to EACOP contractor NewPlan Limited, amidst criminal accusations against the company for issuing 26 dishonoured cheques worth Shs8.6 billion to Uganda Revenue Authority (URA).
The waiver was approved during the September 2, 2026 plenary sitting, following presentation of a report by Maximus Ochai, Chairperson of Parliament’s Finance Committee.
According to the Ministry of Finance, NewPlan Limited’s principal tax was Shs9,428,371,182, which attracted a penalty of Shs600,000 and interest of Shs9,434,925,492, bringing the total to Shs18,863,696,674.
When URA attempted to recover part of the arrears, NewPlan issued 23 dishonoured cheques amounting to Shs8,698,430,404, prompting URA to place a caveat on one of the company’s properties and seal off its premises.
Ochai noted that the company’s net worth had collapsed into negative territory, with limited residual assets after forced realisation by the bank.
“The Company’s net worth has collapsed into deeply negative territory, residual assets appear limited after forced realization by the bank, and further conventional recovery is unlikely to be cost-effective. These factors are consistent with a finding of hardship and of undue difficulty or excessive cost of recovery,” Ochai said.
“In light of the foregoing, the committee recommends that Parliament approves the request for a waiver of tax arrears for NewPlan Limited amounting to Shs18,835,401,578 in accordance with Section 43 of the Tax Procedures Code Act, Cap. 343.”
Minister of State for Industry David Bahati appealed to Parliament to approve the waiver, arguing NewPlan is among the few Ugandan companies in the oil and gas sector.
“Uganda has struggled so hard to have local content, especially in the oil and gas sector. You are competing with billion-dollar companies in that sector. For us who are interacting with business people, if you get out and see how difficult it is joining the oil and gas sector, the limiting factors of money, and you see this one struggling, the easiest option is to give a waiver and help this company start afresh,” Bahati said.
The Opposition, in a minority report authored by Lubowa Gyaviira (Nyendo-Mukungwe Division) and Paul Mwiru (Jinja South East), rejected the waiver, citing evidence that the company engaged in criminal acts.
They noted that URA had preferred criminal charges over the bounced cheques, but the Committee was never updated on the progress of the prosecution.
The Opposition also cited an instance when URA attempted to attach land titles owned by NewPlan and its Chairman in Namawojjolo and Walusubi, but the company instead subdivided and cancelled the mother titles, an action they argued was intended to defeat URA’s recovery efforts.
“While URA successfully placed a caveat on the land located in Pallisa, NewPlan has never provided the original title as requested. Based on the above, it is clear that the company and its Chairman do not act in good faith. Their collective acts amount to dishonesty, malicious and criminal intention. These vices cannot be addressed by a tax waiver. Granting of a waiver would amount to condoning irregular conduct,” Gyaviira noted.
The minority report argued that NewPlan’s woes stem not from market volatility but from governance and decision-making failures, including undertaking pro bono work for the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) without a contract.
“In the statement of the Minister of State for Planning, it was clearly indicated that the company is faced with adverse liquidity risk and expressed doubt of its ability to continue as a going concern. Therefore, a tax waiver cannot resuscitate it, nor is it proper for a tax waiver to be awarded to a company that is not a going concern,” Gyaviira said.
Kassanda North Mp Patrick Nsamba questioned how Parliament could entertain a waiver request from a company last audited five years ago.
“A company that has no audit report cannot convince this Parliament that it deserves a tax waiver,” Nsamba said.
Based on audited and draft financials for 2019 to 2021, the company’s net worth declined from a positive Shs3.69 billion in 2019 to a negative Shs8.4 billion in 2020, before plunging to a negative Shs20.17 billion in 2021.
Sheema Municipality MP Dickson Kateshumbwa argued that oil and gas is a sector where Parliament is pushing local content, yet NewPlan had three contracts terminated.
“If you look at the service providers in the oil and gas sector and major contractors, they are actually foreign companies. It is on very rare occasions that we have had Ugandans successfully participate. Unless we do not love this country or we do not want to support Ugandans participating in oil and gas, we believe Government should support such a case,” Kateshumbwa said.
However, Asanasi Nyakato Hoima City Woman MP opposed the waiver on grounds of equity, citing businesses that collapsed during COVID-19 after accumulating tax arrears.
“The issue of equity is very important. Time and again, we have seen tax waivers come to this Parliament, and the people who are coming to be waived are rich people. Many Ugandans during COVID-19 experienced the same,” Nyakato said.
Samuel Opio Kole North warned that granting the waiver would open floodgates for similar requests.
“You are saying this company was in a loss position, persistent losses. There is a possibility that this loss should be audited to ascertain the actual amount. If we allow only waiver for this one, schools will come, they were also affected, but they are paying taxes,” Opio said.
NewPlan Limited joined the league of companies that have benefited from tax waivers after writing to President Museveni on February 19, 2025, requesting urgent intervention to halt auctioning of its property by dfcu Bank over Shs11.2 billion loan obtained to execute oil and gas projects in the Albertine region.
Parliament learnt that although NewPlan’s total tax liability as of March 2025 was Shs18.86 billion, URA later updated the ledger to Shs19,158,750,604 as of August 4, 2026, after additional arrears of Shs295 million.
NewPlan was registered in 1995 as NORPLAN, a joint venture between Omulen Lawrence Levy and NORPLAN Norway, but rebranded in 2008 to NewPlan Limited. According to Uganda Registration Services Bureau records as of August 2026, its shareholders are NewPlan Engineering Group Ltd (94%), Tukei Judith (3%) and Serukenya Isaac Wassan (3%).
