By Annet Nantongo
The URA customs enforcement team recently intercepted two Toyota Hiace cars popularly known as drones and six high-valued trucks with fake chassis numbers. From these, the tax body will recover UGX 203,913,344 in taxes and penalties derived from unearthing this sinister ploy of the tax evaders.
“The unscrupulous car dealers imported the trucks as motor vehicle spare parts and later assembled from Kampala to make complete units. They illegally assign them number plates of a different vehicles,” Ibrahim Bbossa, URA’s spokesperson explained.
Bbossa also noted that the assemblers were shipping in these motor vehicles as units transiting to South Sudan, were they acquire South Sudanese number plates, come back to Uganda and illegally replace the South Sudanese number plates with those of Uganda.
“These vehicles’ original chassis numbers are then altered to reflect that of the registered number plate given to them,” added Mr Bbossa.
In a similar operation, the URA enforcement officers netted a Toyota Hiace registration number UAZ646D with a Chassis number KDH200-0044323 which belonged to another drone Reg number UBJ838F, a car that belongs to the fleet of Front Page Hotel, an establishment in Entebbe, Wakiso district. It was alleged that after the UAZ646D was involved in an accident, the owner went to Bwaise Accident Vehicles “Supermarket” and bought a used chassis!
However, through intelligence gathering, collaborative reports and surveillance footage from Uganda Police Force showed that the Drone UBJ838F whose chassis was supposedly sold to UAZ646D was well in operation and plying the Entebbe road. It was further established that both drones have never been registered in Uganda apart from bearing number plates previously registered!
Whereas a taxpayer can legally alter already registered particulars of a Motor Vehicle, Trailer and Engineering Plant, they are only allowed to change the colour, seating capacity, engine, weight, body description, among others, and all this is subject to inspection and payment of the fees attached.
Meanwhile, a chassis number is a unique identification assigned to a particular vehicle. Altering car chassis numbers is illegal and punishable by law and is deemed as vehicle fraud which affects tracking of ownership.
According to the Section 131C of the Traffic and Road Safety Act 1998 of Uganda as amended, no one is allowed to modify a chassis of a motor vehicle, trailer or engineering plant without prior written permission of the manufacturer of the chassis of the vehicle.
Bbossa advised buyers to always carry-out background checks to ascertain the authenticity of the cars that they buy. This information can be sourced from URA’s Customs department and the Ministry of Works and Transport registration and licensing department.
These details are also available in the car’s logbook, which a buyer must insist on seeing and verifying before they purchase a car from a bond or a car dealer.
The owners of the intercepted cars will be required to pay the taxes and penalties due. If they do not redeem their goods, the trucks will be sold off in a public auction.
