Rt. Hon. Rebecca Alitwala Kadaga, Speaker of Parliament was Thursday forced to adjourn parliament after the finance ministers failed to show up to defend proposed tax bills.
Parliament sittings had just resumed yesterday following a two-week recess and on the order paper was a hunger motion and four tax bills for discussion, only for line ministers to miss.
The bills including the Income Tax (amendment) bill, 2017, the Excise Duty (amendment) Bill, 2017, the Value Added tax (amendment) bill, 2017 and the Tax Procedure Code (amendment) bill, 2017. The bills were initially scheduled to be handled on Wednesday but appeared on the Order Paper again on Thursday.
After parliament handling the first four items lined up on the order paper, however, there was no single minister from the Ministry of Finance to defend the bills.
Finance minister Matia Kasaija has four state ministers including David Bahati for Planning, Gabriel Ajedra for General Duties, Evelyn Anite for Privatisation and Haruna Kasolo for Micro-finance.
Speaker Kadaga expressed disappointment with the government side saying parliament had resumed to facilitate the budget process.
Without giving audience to the first deputy Prime Minister Moses Ali to explain the whereabouts of the five ministers, Kadaga adjourned the House in protest and without setting a definite date when it will resume.
Minister Bahati told the press that he was accessing the Chambers by the time Speaker Kadaga adjourned the House. He gave assurances the budget process would be completed within the set timelines of May 31st as per the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA).
Thursday’s adjournment of the House becomes one of the many challenges the budget process is facing following the delayed delivery of ministerial policy statements.
