One customs policy to ease doing business
DAVID MUWANGA & PAUL MWIJAGYE
KAMPALA, UGANDA - East African Community (EAC) member states' revenue authorities are planning to harmonise customs policies into one document aimed at reducing the costs of doing business.
EAC Customs Commissioners from Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda have already signed the new common customs policy for authorized economic operators, risk management and post clearance audit.
This was at the fifth steering committee meeting for the World Customs Organisation-East African Community (WCO-EAC) trade facilitation project that was held in Kigali recently.
These new policies will be introduced through the EAC structure and implemented through a pilot programme.
“When introduced, the processes will give faster border clearance and better services for business, while at the same time improving Customs controls and efficiency in revenue collection,” acting assistant commissioner, Public & Corporate Affairs of the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA), Mr. Paul Kyeyune said.
The EAC will become the second region in the world after the European Union to introduce mutual recognition of authorized economic operators and Customs controls on the regional level.
“This is one of the major milestones that we have actually agreed and signed off a policy that we are going to use to try and improve the way we do our work in the region,” Mrs. Mary Baine, the Commissioner General of the Rwanda Revenue Authority said.
URA Commissioner for Customs, Mr. Peter Malinga said the approval of the policies was a landmark achieved by the EAC region. “This now lays a firm foundation for enhancing our greatest desire to facilitate legitimate trade within the region. Our objective to promote stronger and better customs to business partnerships will provide fertile ground for building mutual recognition for compliant clients,” he noted. He said that embracing this activity from a regional point of view is testimony that the benefits for all will be tremendous and cause greater impact on facilitation and growth of trade in East Africa.
“The private sector lauds the efforts of the EAC revenue authorities to introduce the concept of the authorized economic operators as it will reduce the cost of doing business associated with delays in customs clearance,” Ms. Agatha Nderitu, the executive director of East African Business Council (EABC) said.
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