“We can only legislate and discuss on some issues when we’re on the floor of parliament but before we do that because you can remember last week the minister came with a statement which was not satisfactory to the people which was also not satisfactory to the members of parliament. So we need to give it a deeper strength…As NRM MPs, we have a position, we know we can talk about taxes, we’re going to dig out the deeper root, where do we have this gist of problems, why do we have high prices. If it has to do with taxes, how do we make waivers, how do we make reductions and that can only be done at a legislative level and that can be done by MPs and who are these MPs, they are members of NRM,” said Kintu.
According to messages sent to the 337 NRM MPs, Herbert Kinobere, the caucus vice chairperson notes that they will have the caucus meeting at Kololo Independence Grounds and requested MPs to undertake the COVID-19 tests.
“For those who are upcountry, you can go to the nearby ministry of Health authorized testing laboratory and test,” reads part of the message by Kinobere.
In the past months, Ugandans experienced increase in prices of essential commodities like soap, cooking oil, sugar and others leaving many frustrated. The cost of soap for example has more than doubled in the past weeks from Shs 3,500 a bar to Shs 7,500. The skyrocketing prices have been attributed to increase in fuel prices by traders.
Last month, a section of MPs tasked government to explain the increasing commodity prices calling for the suspension of fuel taxes among others. In response to the increasing commodity prices, the minister of Finance, Matia Kasaija has in the past attributed the situation to geo-political tensions between Ukraine and Russia that disrupted supply of oil. He said that these issues are beyond the country’s policy makers.
Rosemary Nyakikongoro, the Sheema Woman MP said that they need the president or minister of Finance to come up with a solution to ensure that prices of the essential commodities go down. She suggested that government ensures that some taxes are cut especially on the commodities that are basic.
Denis Nyangweso, the Samia-Bugwe Central MP said that they need to understand what is causing the skyrocketing prices and ensure that they slow down the rate of the price increase.
“Government must tell us how far they have gone, first of all by implementing [parliament] resolutions. One, [parliament] through the committee of trade recommended that those people who are hoarding fuel must be punished. We want the president to explain to us how far has this gone through the ministry of Trade. Was it ignored and if not who are the culprits and what government has done to them because we realised that fuel importation had increased but there was shortage in the country thereby creating a high price for the fuel,” said Nyangweso.
Nyangweso also said that he expects announcement of tax exemptions for example on importation of crude oil and fuel.
“We were told by the minister that what has increased the price for soap and cooking oil is importation of crude oil. So we want to see how government is intervening. Let us have tax holiday on crude oil and fuel and these are some of the interventions we expect to discuss with the president,” he added.
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