By Irene Kabakama and Dismus Nuwaine
John R. Musinguzi, the Commissioner General of URA has advised traders importing under the groupage system to clear their goods individually at customs to avoid being ripped off by unregistered consolidators and blockers who disguise as legitimate operatives.
“Every individual has to be assessed individually, and one agent can clear all these goods at once in a day,” noted Musinguzi.
Musinguzi made this call during an engagement with cargo consolidators and representatives of business communities at the URA headquarters in Nakawa yesterday.
His call follows challenges in the clearance of groupage cargo which the URA boss attributes to “container leaders” and brokers who have made transactions very “opaque,” leaving traders at the losing end.
“We have been having challenges with the container leading consolidation,” said Musinguzi, before he continued, “When the goods are imported under groupage, the container leader owns the entire mantle of goods and declares it with one single Tax Identification Number (TIN) as his own.”
He continued, “This container leader then pays the required taxes and goes ahead to charge exorbitant fees to the unsuspecting importing traders. Now these traders, after being ripped off, decry URA, yet it’s the container leaders who conspire against them.
Musinguzi further stated that when these goods have a fault and a penalty is issued, some container consolidation leaders abandon these goods at the warehouses, which makes it hard to track the real owners.
He called for transparency from the consolidation leaders and encouraged them to “repent” and adopt “sustainable” business practices if they were to “stand the test of time.”
Speaking at the meeting, Ayebare Kenneth, the Chairperson of the Uganda Cargo Consolidators Association, proposed the harmonization and integration of trade systems between URA and the registered consolidators. He noted that once this is achieved, traders can always have a “pre-import tax declaration,” exchanging cargo data with URA, thereby cutting on the time spent on declaration.
“This is a wonderful proposal,” noted Musinguzi before he continued, “which will enable us to streamline these business operations. I have tasked the Commissioner of Information Technology to work with the team to make this happen.”
Issa Sekito, the spokesperson for KACITA, urged the revenue establishment to double down on tax education amongst the traders, especially on matters of customs.
“Some traders do not know what is happening; they are ignorant of the nuances of importing, and as such, they become easy targets for all the wrong elements,” said Isa, who doubles as Uganda’s trader’s representative to the Common Market for East and South Africa (COMESA).
His call was echoed by Hon. Ronald Balimwezo, the Nakawa East Member of Parliament, who thanked URA for providing room for dialogue. He advised the tax body to utilize the trade association leaders to extend tax education amongst the traders.
Balimwezo also appealed to the government to efficiently utilize the taxes people pay to build Uganda.
Meanwhile, the consolidators were lauded by Abel Kagumire, the Commissioner of Customs at URA, as a key part of the goods shipment chain. He commended the good working relations between them and the revenue body.
“There are now over 40 registered consolidators. Between January and May, they cleared over 643 consignments, which altogether account for about UGX. 5.7 billion,” said the senior taxman.
