Uganda Withdrew $54 Million from Petroleum Fund
The Government of Uganda withdrew $54 million or 200 Billion shillings from the Petroleum Fund ahead of production according to the Semi Annual Report for the Petroleum Fund for the Financial year 2018/2019 for the period ended 31st December 2018 presented before parliament on 21st March 2019 by Minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development Matia Kasaija.
Following the withdrawal from the fund, which started in 2015, formerly valued at 470.4 billion shillings there remains 288.7 billion shillings which are collections from petroleum revenues collected by the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA). This is the second time the government has withdrawn having earlier taken 125.3 billion shillings to bridge its budget deficit. During the period ending 31st December 2018 URA collected taxes worth 30.3 billion shillings. During the same period the Petroleum Authority of Uganda collected training and surface fees totaling 2.5 billion shillings which were also remitted to the fund.
Further the report says that upon approval by the ministry of the draft Petroleum Revenue Investment Policy it will allow investments under the Petroleum Revenue Investment Reserve by the Bank of Uganda with the Investment Advisory Committee regarding investment of the petroleum fund revenues having already been appointed.
The petroleum fund is also expected to act as a contingency with the government expected to reimburse recoverable expenses verified by the office of the auditor general to oil companies once production commences.
For the period 2001 to 2011 the operators submitted $1.01B as recoverable costs with the auditor approving $935.6 million and is thereby disclosed in the statement of contingent liabilities in the financial statement. The amount does not include figures for the period 2012 to date as they have not been verified.