The Ministry of Internal Affairs has said that there is no intention of hiking fees for express passport applicants from shs 400,000 to 1.5 million as earlier requested by parliament as the only remedy for the long queues at the Immigrations Offices.
Last month Members of Parliament on the Public Accounts Committee asked the accounting officer of the Ministry Benon Mutambi and the Under Secretary Lynette Bagonza to increase the fees.
The MPs reasoned that if the fees rise, a few Ugandans will afford the money and this will automatically curb the crowds at the Ministry.
Lately, applicants begin lining up at the Ministry at 4am.
The fee for a regular East African e-passport is 250,000 Shillings which takes around two weeks after one has paid the amount in an authorized bank, however one can obtain a passport immediately if they pay for the express service which costs 400,000 Shillings.
The Ministry’s spokesperson Jacob Simiyu told this website that there is no intention of increasing the passport fees from shs 250,000 to 1.5 million.
“All passports are shs 250,000 but some Ugandans who are able to add 150,000 do that and acquire the passport in 2 days. When you pay 250,000 you wait for 2 weeks,” said Mr Simiyu.
He added that the Ministry has not contemplated hiking fees, “not in this financial year or the next one.”
Simiyu said that the diplomatic passport can be acquired at shs 500,000.
Asked how the Ministry intends to manage the overwhelming numbers of applicants who line up outside the offices, he said, the Ministry is finalizing a decentralization system which will see applicants acquire passports from their regions.
And also the Ministry sometime back introduced the online passport application as a means of managing big crowds at the immigrations offices.