No Bailout for Private Schools- Kasaija
The minister of finance Matia Kasaija has told proprietors of private schools who are choking in unpaid loans and accumulated interests to sell part of their property and redeem themselves.
Kasaija says government is too stressed financially to bail out every business affected by Covid-19.
Appearing before the parliamentary committee on trade and Tourism the minister of finance Matia Kasaija told off school proprietors who are chocking in debts and loan due to the continued lockdown on schools to sell part of their property to clear their debts.
According to National Private Education Institutions association, over 600 private schools across the country are at the verge of being sold over unpaid loans. But Kasaija says government has no money to bailout private schools.
MPs put the minister Kasaija on spot to intervene with solid solution on loan interests accrued during the lockdown. They reported that restructuring of loans by banks has not helped relieve stressed business people but instead to worsen the debt burden.
The committee also piled pressure on the finance minister to engage city landlords on a workable remedy for rent arrears which accumulated over the 42 days lockdown .
According to the minister of Finance, revenue collections have drastically dropped and tourism revenue reduced from 1.6bn US dollars annually to 0.5 billion dollars following a 69% reduction in the number of tourists arrivals in the country.
With all economic decline and fall of GDP, Kasaija assured the committee that the economy is not sliding into recession .
