MPs question sh20.7b electricity subsidy
Feb 26, 2004
MEMBERS of Parliament on the natural resources committee have asked the energy minister, Syda Bbumba, to explain why the Government diverted sh20.7b earmarked for the Rural Electrification Projects (REP).
By Mary Karugaba
MEMBERS of Parliament on the natural resources committee have asked the energy minister, Syda Bbumba, to explain why the Government diverted sh20.7b earmarked for the Rural Electrification Projects (REP).
The funds were instead used to subsidise domestic power consumption.
The legislators said it was wrong for the Government to borrow money meant to help 24m people living in rural areas and use it to cater for only 240,000 people in urban areas.
The committee chaired by Loice Bwambale said the Government should have borrowed money from consolidated funds or any other source but not from REP.
Last year, Bbumba with Parliament’s approval put in place a temporary tariff subsidy of 20.7 billion shillings in order to reduce power rates from sh189 per unit to sh150.
Since then the Government had stopped subsidising the tariffs.
Bwambale said despite the Government’s intervention to reduce the tariffs, the World Bank did not approve the sh150 per unit but instead fixed the rates at sh170 per unit.
MEMBERS of Parliament on the natural resources committee have asked the energy minister, Syda Bbumba, to explain why the Government diverted sh20.7b earmarked for the Rural Electrification Projects (REP).
The funds were instead used to subsidise domestic power consumption.
The legislators said it was wrong for the Government to borrow money meant to help 24m people living in rural areas and use it to cater for only 240,000 people in urban areas.
The committee chaired by Loice Bwambale said the Government should have borrowed money from consolidated funds or any other source but not from REP.
Last year, Bbumba with Parliament’s approval put in place a temporary tariff subsidy of 20.7 billion shillings in order to reduce power rates from sh189 per unit to sh150.
Since then the Government had stopped subsidising the tariffs.
Bwambale said despite the Government’s intervention to reduce the tariffs, the World Bank did not approve the sh150 per unit but instead fixed the rates at sh170 per unit.