There are families in Somalia that live on a tight budget. Some families don't send their children to school because they can't afford the tuition fees, which are usually $5 to $15 per month.
A 5% digital tax might not seem like much to people with disposable income, but it will be a burden to families that spend all of their income on basic necessities.
They are on a tight budget because they are paying extortionist rates for their electricity, high prices for products at the average shop due to expensive imports, and have low-income jobs that aren’t secure. These families wouldn’t have to worry about their children’s education if the government had the means to increase the amount of public schools, build new hospitals and industrial parks to manufacture basic products.
Also, the families in question that you are referring to wouldn’t be the ones paying $5 or $15 a month, not even close. That $7.5 figure was a national per capita average, but in truth there are many individuals with an income of several thousand dollars a month, and individuals with an income with a couple hundred a month, so their contributions would differ.
The well-off men and women paying $50 or $100 a month, or the major companies paying millions a month (after the introduction of the tax) would be the ones lifting the low-income families out of poverty with the delivery of basic services and goods by the Government. What the low-income families loose in digital tax they would see return multifold in the most basic and important necessities.
Besides, the digital tax dates back to 1984, and would have been in play for decades if the war hadn’t happened.
how much of this money will end up missing?
