Government must leverage on natural resources to curb debt - researcher
According to Mr Lakuma, government must leverage on the vast natural resources envelope such as oil and minerals to close funding gaps that are created by heavy reliance on overseas borrowing. FILE PHOTO
What you need to know:
- However, Mr Partick Ocilap, the deputy secretary to the Treasury, told Daily Monitor in an interview government had laid down four strategies that will maintain Uganda’s debt within sustainable levels.
- Mr Ocilap said domestic revenue enhancement, borrowing from multilateral agencies, limited domestic and external borrowing, are some of the measures that government is deploying to limit growth in debt.
Kampala. A research fellow at Economic Policy Research Centre (EPRC) has said the best way to reduce public borrowing is by increasing domestic revenue mobilisation.
Speaking in an interview, Mr Corti Paul Lakuma, the EPRC research fellow in charge of macroeconomics, said government must create a predictable policy environment to ensure efficient and well-resourced revenue administration
Uganda’s external borrowing has since the 2013/14 financial year been growing, expanding by nearly 60 per cent in the period.
Therefore, according to Mr Lakuma, government must leverage on the vast natural resources envelope such as oil and minerals to close funding gaps that are created by heavy reliance on overseas borrowing.
“Increasing productivity of all sectors, improving the business environment and value addition should be done [to expand resource mobilisation,” he said.
However, Mr Partick Ocilap, the deputy secretary to the Treasury, told Daily Monitor in an interview government had laid down four strategies that will maintain Uganda’s debt within sustainable levels.
“The first thing that we are doing is enhancing domestic revenue efforts to minimise the fiscal deficit in the budget. This is the strongest way of financing the budget,” he said.
Mr Ocilap said domestic revenue enhancement, borrowing from multilateral agencies, limited domestic and external borrowing, are some of the measures that government is deploying to limit growth in debt.
