By John Olowo
In an operation dubbed Rolling Thunder, the URA team one enforcement team recently combed all roads heading to the Central Business District and impounded the following goods; 34,385.714 square meters of textile material, 700sets of Bedsheets, 8,276 pieces of t-shirts, 1,115 pieces of Phones and 3,475 kilograms of Basmati Rice.
The goods were worth taxes of UGX 34 million.
URA Customs Supervisor, Armstrong Turyakira noted that the operation was initiated due to the rampant smuggling of Garments, Textiles and rice into the country.
“Garments, textiles and rice are the most smuggled items and we worked on credible information, using two alternate systems of day and night surveillance while occasionally manning check points as well,” he explained.
During the operation, Team One divided themselves into 2 and Team A manned the Eastern route (Kampala – Mukono – Jinja rd. and Kampala – Kayunga – Jinja rd.), while Team B operated the south western routes (Mubende – Mityana rd.) and in the process impounded four vehicles.
Turyakira clarified that goods were brought to Nakawa for verification before penalizing the owners.
“There is a perception amongst traders that textiles and garments fetch a lot of profits if smuggled instead of passing through the right revenue channels, so, they will pay taxes, penalties and fines for smuggling,” he added.
He also disclosed that when they carry out a system analysis and find out that a particular item, previously being declared and yet those items are still flooding the market, it is an indication of smuggling.
Turyakira urges traders to use designated points of entry in order to avoid the harsh penalties and fines related to smuggling saying that Team One is on standby to catch the incoming culprits.
