By Emmanuel Emasu
This week, the URA Team one enforcement launched an operation in selected shops and arcades in Kampala to expose traders selling banned cosmetics. This operation was intended to protect the lives of Ugandans who consume the products and also encourage fair competition among traders.
Assembled in three teams, the officers moved in to check selected areas and by around mid-day about 1.2 Tons of assorted banned cosmetics had been impounded.
Geoffrey Balamaga, the Manager Enforcement Operations explained that despite the tight intelligence network to curb importation of such products, smugglers still find their way to return them.
“They declare them as products in transit to the neighboring countries like South Sudan and DR Congo where they are not prohibited, so once they get there, they now organize and bring them back in small quantities using trucks,” Balamaga explained.
Balamaga also revealed that the smuggling of illegal cosmetics is common in the areas around Lake Albert, Mpondwe, Hoima, Congo, Bunagana and Butogota. He therefore urged the Public to desist from importing or consuming such harmful products as stipulated in the East African Community Customs Management Act (EACCMA). The Act prescribes a penalty of 50% of the value of goods or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 5 years or both for those caught in violation of the law. All those found culpable according to the Act are also liable to a fine not exceeding seven thousand dollars and their goods forfeited.
URA is also intensifying tax education awareness, especially on the dangers of smuggling to the individual, the community and the economy.
Additional Reporting by Immaculate Wanyenze
