By Tom Brian Angurini
The Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) has refuted media reports that banned Kenyan sugar has been sneaked into Uganda.
Addressing journalists in Kampala this afternoon, Vincent Seruma the Assistant Commissioner Public and Corporate affairs says the said shipment was from Kakira Sugar Works that had been sent to Mwanza, Tanzania but was slapped with a 25 percent tax prompting the exporters to ship it back.
Seruma explains that the sugar consignment had to be shipped back to avoid incurring unplanned expenses and currently the 12,000 bags of sugar are being kept at the Jinja pier.
He says the governments of Uganda and Tanzania are currently engaged in an inter-ministerial discussion on why Tanzania could slap such a levy on a Ugandan product yet the East African Community Customs agreement prescribes zero tax on member states’ products.