At least Shs 1.5 trillion needed to help Covid 19 economic victims

Close to 1.5 trillion shillings is needed to help victims of the economic impact of Covid 19 lock down, social distancing and quarantine as ordered by the President.

This is according to a statement released by the Centre for Budget and Tax Policy through its Executive Director Patrick Katabazi.

The largest part of the population under threat are workers in the informal sector who include boda boda riders, taxi drivers, market vendors and petty traders across the country whose activities have been halted by the lockdown.

According to the statement this group numbers about 4 million in total and will need 800 billion shillings in total to facilitate them with at least 50,000 shillings a month to accord them basic needs.

The other group highlighted in the statement as being in urgent need of help are workers within the private sector earning less than 1 million shillings a month.

This group is critical to the economy and they number about 800,000 in total. They contribute a large part of taxes through payee which reached 2.8 trillion shillings for the 2018-2919 financial year, the statement notes.

They require 240 billion shillings to sustain them with at least 100,000 shillings for 3 months to keep them going. Many of these are likely to lose jobs through this period as companies and factories suspend production and some close completely.

Another critical group that was already being supported by government with over 142 billion in Senior Citizens grants as of 2019, the elderly need more support as the burden on their purse  expands during this time with more dependants looking to them.

The Centre for Budget and Tax Policy therefore suggests another 257.5 billion is added to what is already budgeted for Senior Citizens and backed by an increase in funds disbursed from 25,000 shillings to 50,000 shillings for the next 4 months.

The geographical scope of coverage should also be expanded from rural areas to cover suburban areas and cities too so that more elderly people are reached with the age for those who qualify  also brought down to 60 years from 75 years.

According to the statement this will ensure the number reached by the senior citizens grant grows ten fold from the current 200000 people to 2 million elderly Ugandans, the 1.3 million being an addition from the demographic change and another 500,000 being his risk categories close to the new demographics.

Low level civil service workers mainly the men and women in security forces, nurses and teachers earning less than 500,000 shillings a month also need to be helped. These require at least 100,000 shillings as a top up for 3 months to help them cope bringing the total to 45 billion over the duration.

Other interventions suggested by the Centre to keep the economy afloat in this period is the fast tracking of domestic debt payments by government  that according to the Auditor General’s report 2018/19 reached 3.3 trillion shillings.

“These are monies owed to government suppliers locally and service providers which if paid by government in this period will help many struggling firms stay in production and boost output.”

A law is also needed to be passed by government to stem spiralling of commodity prices with those in breach punished severely.

Prompt payment of public service pensioners by government is also key in availing much needed spending cash to citizens so they can purchase much needed essentials in this period.

Setting up a proper social security system with properly captured data of personal contacts and accounts among other details plus accrued benefits to each will also go along way in mitigating the possible effects of an outbreak similar to Covid 19 in future the statement emphasized.