Francis Ayieko
14 August 2006
Nairobi — Revenue authorities in Kenya and Uganda will from next month integrate their information systems, enabling them to streamline the monitoring of transit cargo and share other customs related intelligence.
The $199 million project will see the Kenya Revenue Authority's Simba system and Uganda Revenue Authority's (URA) Asycuda ++ system linked up in a project to stamp out smuggling, product dumping and sale of counterfeit goods between the two countries.
The project is funded by the World Bank under the Tax Modernisation and Revenue Protection Initiative. Simba and Asycuda are electronic data systems that connect the revenue authorities to ports, airports and clearing agents to enable the declaration of Customs on imported goods online. Both KRA and URA adopted the systems last year.
"The KRA and URA have agreed to introduce electronic machines to help track goods on transit as well as exchange Customs information. The cargo tracking system should make the movement of goods seamless. There will therefore be no need for physical escort of transit goods from Mombasa," said Richard Kamajugo, the Uganda Revenue Authority's assistant commissioner in charge of trade.
Mr Kamajugo told members of the East African Legislative Assembly's Committee on Communications, Trade and Investment, that the work of linking up the two systems is likely to be completed by next month.
"Our IT departments are working hard to ensure that the interconnectivity between the URA and KRA is realised. We are hopeful that the Simba and Asycuda systems will start 'talking' to each other by September this year," he told the CTI committee at the Nakawa Customs Business Centre in Kampala.
The committee was on a two-week-long tour of border towns of Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania to assess progress in the implementation of the East African Customs Union, launched in January last year.
According to Mr Kamajugo, Tanzania, which also uses the Asycuda ++ system, will come on board later "since it has just started applying the system."
That about 90 per cent of Uganda's transit cargo comes through Mombasa port makes the interconnectivity project an important initiative for that country's revenue authority.
With the tracking system in place, the Customs authorities will be in a position to easily monitor the movement of trucks carrying transit goods. This will help deal with the problem of diversion of cargo that has been rampant among transporters.
"Once we achieve interconnectivity, it will be easy for both countries to follow the movement of cargo online and exchange Customs information electronically," a source at KRA told The EastAfrican last week.
Last month, Uganda's Minister for the East African Community Affairs, Eriya Kategaya, told a public hearing organised by the CTI committee in Kampala that the EAC's sectoral council on trade, finance and investment was urging the Customs authorities to strengthen their interconnectivity and use of IT systems for exchange of information, among other things.
He also announced that to speed up clearing of goods at border posts, the EAC member states had agreed to conduct a joint verification of goods. The project, currently being piloted at Malaba (on the Kenya-Uganda border), is intended to create a one-stop verification process by the revenue authorities in East Africa at border posts.
The other border posts targeted are Mutukula (Uganda-Tanzania border) and Katuna (Rwanda-Uganda border).
The interconnectivity project, however, might be hindered by inadequate infrastructure at major border points. At some operations like clearing and forwarding of transit goods are still done manually.
This problem has been compounded by lack of electricity at a number of border points like Mutukula (Uganda-Tanzania border) and Namanga (Kenya-Tanzania border).
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