Clothes, rice among most smuggled goods - Report

Clothes, rice and wheat flour are among the most smuggled goods, according to a Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) report for the period ended April. 

The report also captures cosmetics and cooking oil to round off the top five most smuggled goods. 
Others are sandals, shoes and salt, which according to URA are most smuggled because they are fast moving goods with a ready market in Uganda, can be easily be concealed and are sold cheaply in countries of origin compared to prices in Uganda. 

During April, the URA report noted garments, which recorded 34 seizures, were the most smuggled items, followed by rice, which recorded 31 seizures. 

Wheat flour registered 28 seizures while textile material, cosmetics and creams and cooking oil recorded 17, 13 and seven seizures respectively. Sandals, shoes and salt registered six and three seizures, respectively.  

The report also indicates that a total of 1,445 seizures, resulting from outright smuggling were reported between May 2020 and April 2021, helping URA recover about Shs2.1b.

Mr Ian Rumanyika, the URA acting Corporate Affairs commissioner, said the seizures mean that government was able to recover revenue that would have been lost in the process. 

According to the URA report, in April alone, a total of 139 seizures were recorded, which Mr Rumanyika said illustrates the continued challenge, especially with particular goods, among them fast moving goods. 

“Smuggled goods are fast moving items with ready market which makes it easy for smugglers to transact,” he said. 
However, the report had no mention of cigarettes, which had for a long time been some of the most smuggle commodities, which indicates a reduction in illicit trade due to a number of innovations.

The reduction could have been due to the introduction of the digital stamps, which requires cigarettes dealers to carry a digital stamp on each item placed on the market. 

Mr Rumanyika also acknowledged that URA had registered a reduction in illicit trading due to implementation of digital solutions on highly smuggled goods such as sugar.

Digital stamps are physical paper stamps with security features and codes applied to goods or their packaging to enable manufacturers and traders track a product’s movement.

After numerous battles with manufacturers, URA finally implemented the digital stamps on gazetted goods in 2019, among which include water, soda, beer, wine, spirits, and tobacco. 

URA indicates that cement and sugar will also be required to carry digital stamps implemented under the Digital Tracking Solution.

Seizures May 2020- April 2021

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