KAMPALA – President Museveni is on Wednesday expected to address the nation on current affairs amid public outcry due to high commodity prices, attributed to high fuel prices in the country.
Today, fuel prices, both petrol and diesel go past 7000 shilling at some pumps.
Ugandans want the President to be sympathetic and address himself for the most part to the cost of living. They say the President should talk about measures available to address the shocks and challenges caused by the tough economic situation.
The recent Museveni’s anticipated speech on rising commodity prices offered no respite to millions of Ugandans who are on the brink of sliding into poverty due to the unprecedented hike in prices of essential goods that have wiped away their savings.
The general expectation of many people in the run-up to the speech was that Museveni would outline measures the government is taking to shield Ugandans from the rising prices, especially of commodities like fuel, a key ingredient in the production and movement of goods.
Specifically, some had hoped that Uganda would reduce fuel taxes which would, in turn, reduce other commodity prices, something Museveni rubbished.
Museveni said this would be suicidal and a blunder and instead urged Ugandans to turn to domestically available products.
“If we subsidize or even just remove the taxes on imported commodities, the level of consumption will either remain the same, but this time each litre [of petrol] taking more dollars, or actually increase. The dollar drain will now increase per litre…,” the president said.
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