The Ugandan government, in its four year investment and development plan, proposed taxing land and food crops in an attempt to broaden its revenue base away from dependence on coffee sales. The government also said in the plan, made available to Reuters, that a devaluation of the Ugandan shilling would do little to redress a chronic balance of payments deficit. The plan, the first since President Yoweri Museveni took power 15 months ago, seeks to raise 2.

U.S. Interior Secretary Donald Hodel said he does not support an oil import fee as a means to stimulate domestic oil and gas production. “I am an advocate for incentives for exploration,” Hodel said, but added, “I do not favor an oil import fee.” “It would inject the federal government so deeply back in to the process, we would never get the government out again, and I think that would be in the long term disinterest of the nation,” Hodel said in an address to a group of local business executives.

Central Bank governor Chang Chi-cheng defended Taiwan’s policy of holding a large amount of its foreign exchange reserves in U.S. Dollars, citing similar policies followed by countries such as West Germany and Japan. The reserves, now a record 56 billion U.S. Dlrs, are the world’s largest after those of West Germany and Japan. About 90 pct is held in U.S. Dollars and the rest in yen and marks. Chang’s remarks to parliament were in response to a call on Monday by about 20 members of the parliament who asked the government to diversify into other currencies, including yen, marks and Swiss francs because of exchange rate losses.

Mexico’s minister of energy and mines, Alfredo del Mazo, has yet to reply to a Peruvian invitation for ministerial-level talks on bilateral cooperation in silver marketing, a ministry spokesman said. Peruvian officials said they extended the invitation earlier this week and that it was possible the talks could be held within the next 15 days. Meanwhile, a Banco de Mexico spokesman confirmed that Mexican central bank head Miguel Mancera Aguayo held private talks here yesterday with the president of the Peruvian central bank.

Sight deposits of commercial banks at the Swiss National Bank fell by 416.9 mln Swiss francs to 7.46 billion in the six days ending April 16, the National Bank said. Sight deposits are an important measure of money market liquidity in Switzerland. Foreign exchange reserves fell by 627.4 mln francs to 32.50 billion francs. The National Bank attributed this fall to the dismantling of outstanding swap arrangements. Bank notes in circulation fell by 116.

Soviet farmers had sown spring crops on only 15.8 mln hectares or 11 pct of cultivated land by April 27, compared with 26.2 mln ha by April 21, 1986, Izvestia said. Grains and pulses (except maize) were sown on 6.7 mln ha, compared with 13.1 mln at the same time last year, it added. Spring sowing is off to a slow start, with planting two to four weeks behind schedule in many areas of the Ukraine, Byelorussia and Russia, because the winter was unusually cold.

A range of substantial policy initiatives need to be implemented to shift resources from consumption to production in the Zimbabwe economy, says the Zimbabwe Banking Corporation (ZBC) in its quarterly economic review. The state owned banking group says although Zimbabwe’s balance of payments improved significantly last year the underlying position deteriorated. Last year’s improved trade surplus was partly the result of sales of stockpiled gold and continued import restraint. It says debt service charges are projected to exceed 35 pct of exports in 1987 and warns against squeezing imports further.

Bonn is expected to rush through legislation this month creating special credits to protect West German farmers from a proposed European Community, EC, payments freeze, government sources said. The new measures are apparently designed to shield West German farmers from the consequences of the looming EC budget crisis and give Bonn scope to keep up its opposition to the EC executive commission’s farm policy reform plans, political sources said. EC finance and farm minsters held an unprecedented joint session in Luxembourg today to try to solve the stalemate over future farm financing.

The Manitoba Agriculture Department weekly crop report said no measurable precipitation was reported across the province in the past week, allowing small grain seedings to progress rapidly across the south, with field preparation under way in the northern growing regions. Small grains should be seeded across the Province in one to two weeks, assuming weather remains dry. Planting progress was most advanced in the southeast, with 30 pct of the spring wheat acres and 40 pct of the barley acres seeded.

The Swiss National Bank will continue to take part in concerted intervention on currency markets as necessary, president Pierre Languetin told the bank’s annual meeting. He said the dollar had on occasion hit highs or lows which bore no relation to economic fundamentals and cooperation between all monetary authorities was necessary to prevent it breaching thresholds that would damage everyone. “We are resolved – as we have done in the past – to take part in concerted intervention to the extent that this is possible and desirable,” Languetin said.