URA to deploy drones to catch smugglers

FILE PHOTO: Drone

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Uganda Revenue Authority will start using drones to monitor remote routes that have been used by smugglers to bring goods into the country without paying tax.

The project which will see the tax body receive at least 500 million Shillings in the next budget, will enable URA to use drones to catch elusive smugglers crossing Uganda and neighbouring countries with undeclared goods.

Parliament’s finance committee has already given a nod to the plan. The drones will be bought together with body bugs, covert listening devices, known as wire and body cameras and it is hoped that the use of drones will likely be in the 2020/2021 financial year.

Stephen Magera, the URA assistant commissioner for enforcement has said drones will be an addition to other measures like increasing visibility in some of the smuggling-prone areas.

Smuggling is a key revenue-leakage area that URA has for long been trying to plug. During the financial year 2018/19, enforcement operations led to an overall revenue recovery of 78.48 billion Shillings from 9,152 seizures.

At least 4.2 percent of the offences were due to outright smuggling the revenue body reported. Others like concealment, miss-declaration, with false documentation being the most used method to dodge taxes.

Yet even the drones will have the limits. For instance, questions have been asked on whether URA will be able to respond swift enough on the information relayed by the drones to arrest smugglers. Some of the goods smuggled are too small even for the eye of the drone, like a packet of cigarettes – people disguising them as items for personal use.

Magera said that there have been improvements with the road networks that would enable swift movements for the enforcement team. He also said the authority has recruited more staff to be on the ground.

Drones seem to be the thing for both private and public entities.

At the level of the regulation, Uganda still has no legislation on importation and usage of drones in the country. Private people have been importing them but many remain held at Entebbe International Airport because owners don’t know how to clear them at customs said Uganda Civil Aviation Authority.

However, UCAA said there is a noticeable increase in the importation of drones from 2017 to 2019 with an average of four drones per day a trend which is expected to continue.

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