Government should effect a temporary ban on the exportation of food products as a measure of addressing the increasing prices of commodities in the country, experts from the National Planning Authority (NPA) have advised.
The Director for Research and Development Performance at NPA, Rogers Matte made the revelation while interfacing with MPs on the National Economy Committee on the state of the economy.
The committee chaired by Bukedea County MP, John Ikojo is currently assessing the state of the economy and public debt.
Matte said that there is a need, in the short term, to ban the export of essential food items and increase production due to increasing prices of various commodities.
He noted that the country is facing headline inflation that increased from 2 percent in May 2021 to 4.9 percent in April 2022 mainly due to the price increments in energy, fuel, utilities, food and related items.
NPA explained that the rise in the price of soap from Sh3800 to Sh7700 is because of the shortage of raw materials like palm oil that are imported from Indonesia and Kenya; increased labour costs in Indonesia because of Covid-19 challenges and shortage of containers due to high demand from different countries.
Matte attributed the increasing prices of sugar to the rise in fuel prices since the cane is transported on trucks from the garden to the factories.
He said that the rise in the prices of petrol and diesel was a result of global and domestic factors whereby the international prices of crude oil changed and the Sh100 per litre Excise Duty levy in the current financial year’s budget in Uganda.
The committee members like Buvuma county MP, Robert Migadde Ndugwa and Kimanya- Kabonera county MP, Dr.Abed Bwanika said that Ugandans who are mostly farmers are not the ones that have increased the prices of the food items because they continue to fetch low farm gate prices only to see prices of other commodities increase hence affecting them.
Bwanika challenged the experts to advise the Government to strengthen the Oil Reserves so that the country does not suffer a lot in case of shortage in supply at any given time.
The government should support local farmers.