URA seizes phones worth over Shs200m at Entebbe Airport
A photo montage shared by URA on November 20, 2024, shows some of the suspects and the concealment methods they were attempting to use to smuggle phones through Entebbe Airport. PHOTO/HANDOUT
What you need to know:
- The tax body says suspects had attempted to smuggle the phones into the country using devised movie-like concealment methods to “escape the URA hook.”
Security operatives and customs officers working under Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) have seized mobile phones worth over Shs200 million (about $55, 000) in a major crackdown targeting apparent smugglers, Monitor has learnt.
URA says its officers have in the last couple of weeks, through intelligence led operations, intercepted at least 781 pieces of smartphones and 108 pieces of button phones destined for the Ugandan market.
The tax body says suspects had attempted to smuggle the phones into the country using devised movie-like concealment methods to “escape the URA hook.”
“Passengers were repeatedly breaking bags on the conveyor belts and sticking their cargo into hand carry luggage and other nether regions. Some buried them deep in suitcases, mingled with personal belongings that would later be disguised as ordinary "Kadama" (migrant workers’) baggage,” URA said in a Wednesday statement.
According to URA, other smugglers conspired with airport trolley pushers and cleaners, hoping to slide their merchandise past customs in unnoticeable travel bags.
“Then there was the “sitya danger” ilk who threw caution to the wind and attempted to dash past the scanner. Some smugglers even applied the usual age-old, desperate trick of strapping phones directly onto their bodies, hoping customs was none the wiser. Unrelentingly, enforcement officers searched high and low and never gave up to counter the tricks of the smugglers,” the authority noted.
Some of the seized phone brands include 258 pieces of assorted Redmi, Oppo, Sony Xperia, Sharp Aquos smartphones, 95 pieces of assorted, refurbished and used iPhones, 287 pieces of Samsung Galaxy phones (both new and used), 10 pieces of used Google Pixel 7, 5 pieces of New Tecno Spark 20 Pro, 112 pieces of Infinix phones, 15pieces of Huawei Smart Phones and the rest are button Phones, commonly known as “Kapeesa.”
URA now says offense management is underway.
Highest smuggled item at Entebbe Airport
Amid endless interceptions, URA ranks mobile phones as the highest smuggled item at the Entebbe Airport passenger terminal.
“The increase in phone smuggling is largely attributed to ignorance of values and taxes to be paid, and greed by the traders to persistently evade taxes on mobile phones,” URA says.
In a bid to end phone smuggling, URA has recently deployed enforcement techniques such as passenger profiling, using intelligence networks, CCTV cameras and non-intrusive inspection scanners at the airport.
In Uganda, concealment of phones with the aim to smuggle contravenes section 202 where penalty is 50 per cent of the value while failure to declare the phones to customs contravenes sections 45 and 46 of the East Africa Community Customs Management Act (EACCMA) 2004, (amended) and penalty is handled according to section 209 of the EACCMA.
