Uganda loses Sh3bn to illicit cigarette imports

The Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) would have netted more than Ush200 billion (about Sh5.46 billion) from the cigarette trade alone but only got Ush74 billion (Sh2 billion) due to a surge in cigarette smuggling last year.

In a media briefing yesterday in Kampala, Mr Vincent Seruma, the URA assistant commissioner public and corporate affairs, said illicit importation of cigarettes occasions serious revenue losses to the exchequer.

“Cigarettes are high value. It enters the country through roguish ways which we are aware of. We have invested significantly in intelligence to break the rackets,” he said.

In the last six months, the URA said it had conducted several interceptions and recovered smuggled goods via the consolidation centre in Kisaasi, a suburb, north east of Kampala.

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