President Museveni has advised Ugandans feeling the pinch of rising commodity prices to become more frugal and avoid excessive expenditure. While delivering a national address on Sunday, the president ruled out any fiscal interventions in way of reducing taxes to avert the rising commodity prices.
“….The correct action is to kukekereza (being
frugal)–kwereembareemba or kubyesonyiwa
(get alternatives for the non-oil items),” Museveni said. The president made the remarks in response to concerns over high cost of oil-related commodities such as bread, cooking oil among others. He added that the other alternative is substituting some of these products with locally available products to guard against associated costs of bring them into the country. Museveni explained that certain commodities are highly priced due to external factors such as distorted supply chains from major global producers resulting from wars and the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic among others. He thus vowed not to cut taxes, which for now have been earmarked by many local economists and analysts as the sole cause of the rising prices. The president revealed that cutting prices for both imports and locally produced products would be “suicide” because it would deprive the country of the much needed revenue to develop the country.
“… Therefore, removing taxes or subsidizing many of
the imports is suicidal and a blunder,” he said. The president also advised Ugandans to produce more of the scarse products on top of being frugal as a way of averting the crisis for good. Below is the president’s full speech:
