John Augustine Emojong
3 November 2008
Over 90 fuel tankers entered the country through Malaba and Busia border posts in the last 48 hours to ease the deepening fuel crisis which had began to bite in the last few days.
The Uganda Revenue Authority(URA) Eastern Region Manager, Mr James Abodi told journalists during a press briefing in his office in Malaba on Saturday that a total of 562 trucks were cleared at Malaba entry point on Friday, out of which 32 were fuel tankers.
He said by mid day on Saturday, 26 fuel tankers had been cleared.
Meanwhile in Busia, , by 11.00am on Saturday, a total of 30 fuel tankers had been cleared.
Mr Abodi said the blame being heaped on URA for the fuel crisis in the country allegedly caused by delays in clearing of cargo at the border posts in Malaba and Busia, were not fair because they always did their best.
"You can see, as we talk now that the yard for fuel tankers is empty. That yard has a capacity of at-least 50 trucks. But now it is empty because we have cleared everything. Once we have cleared, we should not be blamed for the delay of that truck on the way," Mr Abodi said.
Mr Abodi said out of at least 600 to 650 trucks that enter Uganda through Malaba from Mombasa daily, 30 to 35 are fuel tankers, adding that they give priority to the fuel to be cleared first, once an entry is lodged by a clearing agent.
In a meeting with URA Commissioner General Allen Kagina, Works and Transport Minister John Nasasira, Finance Minster Ezra Suruma and Trade and Industry Minister Janat Mukwaya, in Malaba on his way from the Intergovernmental Authority on Development summit in Nairobi on Thursday, President Yoweri Museveni directed URA to find an immediate solution to the problem of delays in cargo clearance and truck jams at the border.
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