The Speaker of Parliament Anita Among has referred the Alcoholic Drinks Control Bill, 2023, to the Committees on Health, Tourism, Trade and Industry for scrutiny, after it was tabled on November 14, 2023.
Tororo District Woman MP moved a private member’s bill, last year and was granted leave of the House to introduce the Bill on 08 November 2022.
The bill seeks to among other things regulate the manufacture, sale and consumption of alcoholic drinks, and also prohibits the sale of alcoholic drinks to children below 18 years of age.
It seeks to repeal the current legislations that include, the Liquor Act, the Portable Spirit Act, and the Enguli (Manufacturing and Licensing) Act, all enacted in the 1960s.
The Bill got its first reading and the Opendi clarified that the purpose of the legislation is not to halt the sale of Alcohol in Uganda but regulate its sale, manufacture and consumption.
“I have heard members saying that I want to stop people from consuming alcohol but the object of the bill is to regulate the manufacture, sale and consumption of alcoholic drinks and prohibit the sale and supply of alcoholic drinks to children and other related matters” she said
The Ministry of Finance declined grant the required certificate of financial implications, despite the bill having passed the mandatory 60 days required to wait for the Bill’s approval. However, the Speaker still guided that the bill is tabled after invoking a section of the Public Finance Management Act, 2015.
“The Minister for Finance declined to give a certificate of financial implications to the Bill and subsequently, we have had to invoke section 76(4) of the Public Finance Management Act, 2015 for the Bill to be read for the first time,” said Speaker Anita Among.
The World Health Statistics 2023 report shows staggering levels of alcohol use in Uganda. Per capita alcohol consumption is 12.21 liters of alcohol per year.
Uganda tops for being the African country with the highest alcohol intake, according to the WHO report.