Customs Clearance Procedures
- The importer delivers goods to the Consolidator of his/her choice (Shipper) in the foreign country (e.g. China, UAE) together with all the documents showing the nature of the packages, description of the items as well as the invoices, packing list.
- The individual importers must provide details of their names, contacts and Tax Identification Numbers (TIN) to the consolidator at the point of delivery of the goods at the consolidator’s warehouse. These details ought to appear on the master Bill of Lading and the House bill of lading.
3. The consolidator shall ensure that before the goods arrive at the first port of entry for instance Mombasa/Dar-es-Salaam, all individual importers in the container have been IDENTIFIED; TINS details indicated on the Master Bill of lading and have submitted the required purchase documentation i.e. invoices evidence of payments, parking lists with a detailed description of goods, quantities, delivery notes etc.
4) When goods arrive at the first port of entry port in the Partner State (eg. Mombasa, Dar-es-Salaam), transit entries are captured to move the goods to the destination bond in Uganda, where final clearance will take place. These Customs documents are called WT8 and T1.
5) When the Container arrives in the ICD/Bond, the bond operator and Customs officer shall receive the cargo. WT8/TI auto-converted to the warehousing entry (IM7), the registered consolidator, the appointed agent shall handle cargo examination with customs and upload examination accounts for further processing.
6. The consolidator then shall initiate a transfer of ownership from his names to the individual taxpayers they consolidated (breaks bulk). Transfer of ownership fees are paid and approval of transfer is done by the Supervisor Customs
7. All individual importers will be required to appoint their own licensed Customs agents to take on the process of clearing the items after the consolidator has approved the transfer of ownership.
8. The individual importers have an option to pay taxes (IM4) after transfer of ownership approval or continue with the warehousing process as per the warehousing procedures or goods are re-exported. All the purchase documents (invoices, evidence of payments, parking lists with detailed description of goods, quantities, delivery notes Master and House Bill of lading etc.) must be declared and attached on all customs declarations.
