BY ANNET NANTONGO
N30 is an infamous gang, well known in areas of Bugiri and Kibimba, that has made a name as notorious “certified” smugglers. They terrorise the trade game by creating an imbalance since they ferry goods that evade taxes yet the traders compete for the same profit space with goods that have paid taxes. This clique of strong energetic youths uses bicycles (maanyi ga kifuba) to smuggle contraband through porous routes.
URA, through its enforcement offices in Iganga, had tailed the misfits for days. The enforces pitched camp in Kayango swamp, Bugiri district to net the group that had set out on another smuggling mission on Saturday 19th February 2022. A cat and mouse game ensued as the smugglers created “a monitoring arm” with the sole role of keeping tabs on the movement of the URA enforcement Pickup in an attempt to stay ahead in the smuggling game.
To cut the long story short, URA intellectually overpowered the young men and made a clean sweep, recovering 380 litres and 20 litres of Somo cooking oil in 20 ltr an 10 ltr jerrycans respectively, 18 cartons of Pembe wheat flour, 18 cartons of Doffi Washing powder, 100kgs of Baraf rice and 3 cartons of T-Guard toothpaste.
This is one of the typical scenes from various anti-smuggling enforcement operations in the chase games against smugglers. URA continuously unearths a number of similar rackets to protect society against harmful products and encourage fair competition.
Geoffrey Balamaga, the Manager Enforcement Operations recently noted that goods when smuggled into the country, do not pay tax and are sold cheaper than those that pay taxes, which he notes as a huge cost to the country.
A week after the first operation, the Iganga team swept in another loot of assorted items. This time, the contraband conveyance means were the interstate buses, particularly SIMBA and MASH companies.
The unsuspecting Buses were taken unawares from a mobile check point mounted at Nakalama junction along the Jinja-Tororo highway where a search uncovered several undeclared items.
The assorted impounded goods included 9 rolls of electrical cables, and motor vehicle parts including 200 pieces of Osimco breakpads, 2 boxes of shockabsorbers, and 6 cartons of assorted new motor vehicle parts.
In addition, there were 400 litres of ANTIFOAM, 140kgs of Mapei ultra colorplus, 2 cartons of Lab reagents, 200 vet syringes, 60 Badizos for vet use, and one carton of assorted lab equipment.
The team also recovered one carton with 250pcs Princo DVD-Rs and assorted foods including 200kgs of soya lecithin, 352 bottles of 680gm American garden ketchup, 160kgs Aisha rice and 36 packets of 500gms instant noodles.
In the recent past, URA has noted a surge in textile smuggling. This operation discovered hundreds of yards which included 100 yards of material, one bale of new socks and three other bales with 6 rolls of 25yds suiting material, 11rolls of 25yds uniform material and 20 rolls of 5yds poplyn material.
The implicated persons will be penalised as per the offences committed as offence management and investigations continue.
During the half year revenue performance announcement, it was noted that Customs country wide enforcement operations during the period of July to December 2021 led to a recovery of UGX 47.14 billion as a consequence of 3,860 seizures. Dutiable goods accounted for 3,559 seizures while 301 were from non-dutiable goods.
The most at risk goods during the last half year period of 2021 were: assorted, garments, motor-vehicle spares, textiles, hardware, electricals, cosmetics, and stationery.
URA retaliate its commitment to fighting smuggling of all sorts and liberating Uganda from economic saboteurs engaging in illicit trade. The general public is encouraged to report to URA all suspicious trade practices in their areas to enable URA create a level trading ground for all legitimate Traders.
