Abstract:
Tax incentives as a public finance policy impact the realisation of economic and social rights. In this study I explore the connection between the fiscal policy on tax incentives and the realisation of economic and social rights. I focus on free and compulsory universal primary education in Uganda as an aspect of the right to basic education especially for poor and vulnerable persons. Using the theory of the human rights-based approach to fiscal sociology developed by Waris, I assess the role of tax competition in the prevalence of unjustified and non-strategic tax incentives. I employ mixed doctrinal and qualitative methods to establish the impact of tax competition on fiscal sovereignty and legitimacy. I argue that the fiscal policies on tax incentives violate critical human rights principles and affect the realisation of rights. This situation is aggravated by the absence of a clear legal obligation on states to deliberately formulate fiscal policy aimed at realising economic and social rights. Inevitably, the realisation of critical rights is subjected to the whims of a largely unregulated private sector-led economy, to the detriment of poor and vulnerable citizens. I further contend that if domestic revenue mobilisation initiatives are to meaningfully contribute to sustainable resources for economic and social rights financing, fiscal policy ought to be human rights compliant. A departure from this position leads to substantial avoidable revenue losses and leakages, which resources could have been used to enhance the realisation of economic and social rights. Ultimately, I emphasise the need for a full realisation, on the part of all actors, of the inseparable nexus between fiscal policy and human rights; and propose the adoption of a definitive normative legal obligation – at the international and domestic levels – upon states to ensure that fiscal policy is directed towards the realisation of economic and social rights, particularly for poor and vulnerable persons. This is the most sustainable way through which states can avoid a fiscal crisis.
