Parliament closes with the approval of 5 trillion shillings loans

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT |  The 10th Parliament has come to an end with the approval of five loans worth 4.8 trillion shillings in a few days.

Parliament’s five-year term concludes today, Tuesday  the 11th of May 2021 according to the Speaker Rebecca Kadaga.

On Monday, Parliament approved two loans worth 2.3 trillion shillings from the AFREXIM Bank and the Trade and Development Bank to finance the Budget for the Financial year 2021/2022.

Additionally, the house approved a loan request by Government to borrow up two Special Drawing Rights SDR  worth 97 billion shillings from the International Development Association (IDA) of the World Bank for COVID-19 response and Uganda Reproductive, Maternal and Child Health Improvement project.

On Tuesday, the Minister of Finance yet again tabled three loan requests worth 3 trillion which were  approved by Parliament.

MPs also approved government’s request to borrow for additional financing of up to of 894 billion Shillings of SDR from the IDA of the World Bank to support the Uganda Inter-Governmental Fiscal Transfers Programme for results.

Parliament also approved loan request by the government to borrow up to a total of 1.4 trillion shillings from the African Development Fund, African Development Bank, and the corporate Internalization fund of Spain for the refurbishment of the Kampala-Malaba Meter Gauge Railway.

Another one is 112 billion shillings from the African Development Fund to finance Revenue shortfalls has also been approved.

Kalungu West MP Joseph Ssewungu says that it seems the lenders give money to Uganda without due diligence.

He says for instance, when one goes to borrow money from the Bank, they ask for a financial card to find out whether one still has the capacity to borrow.    “Do countries also have financial cards, where the lending agencies like Banks read about your performance? What I am seeing is way beyond” Ssewungu said.

Geoffrey Macho, the Busia Municipality MP says that it is sad that this Parliament will be known as a Parliament of loans.

Jonathan Odur, the Erute South MP says that government is borrowing money to refurbish Meter Gauge Railway instead of constructing the standard gauge railway as earlier planned. He also questioned why there was a difference in the prices of constructing the meter gauge railway.

“The cost per kilometer meter track of the project is much more than that of rehabilitating the Tororo-Gulu Railway line yet Uganda Railway Corporation is attributing this difference in cost to the scope of works which is not true,” Odur says.

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