Govt asked to temporarily suspend taxes on fuel to curb prices

The chairperson of Parliament’s Committee on Public Accounts-Central Mr. Medard Ssegona has advised the government to temporarily suspend taxes put on fuel to curb the current sky rocketing prices.

In a period of just one week, the price of a litre of petrol has risen from Shs4,300 to Shs5,320 and diesel from Shs4,000 to now Shs5,000 at most filling stations.

The Ministry of Energy attributes the fuel price increases to the demand and supply in the global market, where demand for oil increased to 103 million barrels per day in June.

In Uganda, the fuel dealers are grappling with taxes that include; road fees, income tax, excise duty, and fuel marking fees which they say are all pushed to the final consumer.

Now Ssegona proposes that since the country is grappling with a heavy debt burden, coupled with the funding freeze by the World Bank and cannot provide tax incentives to all sectors, the government should temporarily suspend some taxes on fuel to allow other activities of production and industrialization continue with minimal no cost effects.

He hopes that this will help reduce the skyrocketing commodity and food prices.