Opposition Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) have expressed fear that the NRM government could be on the road to mortgaging the country.
The party Deputy spokesperson Paul Mwiru on Monday showed concern that Uganda’s debt has been spiraling out of control.
Last week, Finance minister Matia Kasaija revealed that the country’s external and domestic public debt has now reached USD 8.7Billion, an equivalent of 37% of the country’s GDP.
Mr Mwiiru pointed out that that the current government was literally “mortgaging us and our children in heavy debts,” calling upon parliament to act fast.
The opposition party suggested that government forms a committee both from parliament and the public sector to realistically look for ways to seize the overwhelming loans.
“The committee among others should be positioned to track all the money lost in corruption and put it to debt service,” he said.
“Currently the Minister of Finance has been tabling the performances of the passed loans in Parliament and its evident enough that the loans are not yielding any results yet we keep asking for more and not utilizing it”
“This is a clear indication that as voters you voted a mobiliser not a manager, otherwise the president would have managed the situation already,” he added.
However, during the budget reading, minister Kasaija allayed fears that Uganda’s debt is not yet unmanageable.
He clarified, “When future debt payment obligations are discounted to today’s value, our public debt to GDP ratio stands at 27%, much lower than the threshold of 50% beyond which public debt becomes unsustainable. Uganda’s public debt is therefore sustainable in the medium and long term.”