URA Recovers Shs 26 Bn from Smugglers Nixon Segawa Trucks loaded with goods Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) customs enforcement team has registered remarkable success in the fight against smuggling of goods and other related tax offences by recovering over shs 25 billion from the acts in the past one year. Speaking to journalists at URA head offices in Kampala, the Assistant Commissioner in charge of enforcement, James Kisaale noted that hadn’t it been for the presence of the enforcement team, government would have lost shs 25, 215,518,147 for a period of one year form November 2013 to October 2014. “Enforcement operations between November 2013 and October 2014 led to 5,635 seizures which yielded total revenue recovery of shs 25,215,518,147 in both taxes and fines,” Kisaale noted. Kisaale remarked that these recoveries were made on goods worth Shs.2, 062,972,500 in value. Out of this, he said the total fraud value of the non-dutiable goods was shs 8,748,147,500 and the total fraud value of the dutiable goods was Shs.43, 314,825,000. He added that recovery from Under valuation of goods was Shs.9, 890,030,026 which was 39% of the total tax recoveries. “Recovery from mis-declaration and false declaration was Shs.8, 355,595,139 which was 33% of the total tax recoveries while recovery from outright smuggling was Shs.3, 104,500,664 which was 12% of the total tax recoveries.” Recovery from other offences such as violation of Temporary road licenses, conveyance of unaccustomed goods, and abuse of exemptions was Shs.3, 397,476,826 which was 14% of the total tax recoveries. Recovery from Concealments using the Electronic Scanners was Shs.467, 915,490. He further revealed that he top 5 most smuggled goods under this one year period were: Garments with 76 seizures worth Shs.1,866,979,400 in value and Shs.1,260,336,679 was recovered in taxes and penalties. “Rice with 125 seizures worth shs.218, 686,000 in value and Shs.447, 614, 149was recovered in taxes and penalties.” Hardware with 13 seizures worth shs.866, 190,000 in value and UGX 309,225,743 was recovered in taxes and penalties. Electricals with 9 seizures worth shs 459,804,800 in value and shs 189,092,820 were recovered in taxes and penalties. Agro Chemicals with 5 seizures worth Shs. 329,264,000in value and shs 153,129,947 were recovered in taxes and penalties. “We are in the initial stages of establishing a National Enforcement Taskforce consisting of different law enforcement agencies such as Police (Interpol), NEMA, UWA, NFA, & UPDF to deal with some specific aspects of illicit trade, for example, Environmental crimes,” he said.
Posted on: Wed, 03 Dec 2014 18:39:06 +0000
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