By Last week Tuesday parliament passed the Petroleum Amendment Bill 2023 which gives the monopoly of supplying oil in Uganda to Uganda National Oil Company Ltd (UNOC).
The Bill is aimed at eliminating the middlemen in the oil supply chain that are said to be the cause of fluctuations in oil pump prices.
However, Ismail Kirya says the government intends to use this as an opportunity to manipulate Ugandans through having a monopoly in the pricing of petroleum products.
“The government will now use this opportunity to manipulate Ugandans through taxing UNOC highly and every Company will be forced to increase the prices based on the tax added,” said Kirya
The Bill also grants Uganda National Oil Company (UNOC) monopoly to supply imported petroleum products to licensed Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) among other responsibilities.
The DP argues that the Bill contradicts the Competition Amendment Bill 2022 passed earlier by the same parliament and awaits the president’s assent
According to Ismail Kirya the acting Party spokesperson, the earlier passed competition amendment bill discourages monopoly which he says is encouraged by the new bill.
He contends that uganda deserves a liberalized economy where market prices are not a monopoly of one company.
“Parliament needed wider consultations with the stakeholders and the minority report wasn’t given a chance to be looked through.
We need a liberalized economy where everyone has a right to compete in the market just like the insurance companies.” Kirya added
Parliament has passed the Competition Bill 2022 which will facilitate fair competition in markets and prevent practices having adverse impacts on competition in markets. The bill primarily seeks to control the anti-competitive behavior of firms that hurt competition in Uganda’s market. Ismail argues this petroleum bill is in total contradiction and should have been revised before its passing.
He says “First of all, it contradicts the Competition Amendment bill which was passed in 2022 waiting for the president to assent to his signature. This gives liberty for completions and it fights monopoly in the business in Uganda, then the new bill gives monopoly to only one company UNOC. The competition bill gives efficiency in the market.”
It is worth noting that Uganda National Oil Company UNOC is a government-owned company established to handle the government’s commercial interests in the petroleum sector.
