Traders have asked Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) to evaluate goods held at the border and release them from the Document Processing Center (DPC) because their businesses are facing losses.

According to Godfrey Katongole, the Chairperson of Kampala Arcades Traders Association (KATA), with 300 hundred traders who met with a team from URA in Kampala on October 30, 2023, the new clearance procedures which include getting clearance from the DPC are time consuming.

“The goods are perishing at the borders and we call for fast evaluation to enable them to access the markets in time,” Katongole said.

However, Abel Kagumire, the URA Commissioner of Customs, cautioned traders who import goods using long-distance buses to declare goods on arrival to enable fast and seamless release from DPC.

“Declare your goods so that we can verify them as soon as possible. It is not in our interest to withhold your goods since it affects revenue collection if they are not sold out,” Kagumire said.

He noted that, some traders are importing rice from outside the East African region and declaring it as sourced from Tanzania, adding that URA has picked samples that are being tested to ascertain the origin of the rice.

“The taxpayer is required to have a certificate of origin ascertaining the country of origin,” Kagumire said.

According to the East African Community Common External Tariff (EAC-CET), importation of rice outside the East African Community (EAC) is subject to import duty at a rate of 75%. Unlike rice sourced from EAC which attracts a 0% import duty.