Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni. He has demanded explanation over bonded warehouse full of dubious sugar. PHOTO | NMG
President Yoweri Museveni has moved to clear Uganda’s image of
being a country that is aiding the smuggling of illicit sugar from
outside of the region.
In an August 19 letter to Prime
Minister Ruhakana Rugunda, the president sought an explanation of how
Uganda came to have a bonded warehouse where traders store sugar
imported outside of the EAC, in contravention of the common external
tariff.
President Museveni also directed the Uganda
Revenue Authority to close a warehouse where he says foreign sugar from
say Brazil is stored before re-export to the Democratic Republic of
Congo and South Sudan.
According to President Museveni,
this bonded warehouse is the reason Kenya and Tanzania have denied
Ugandan sugar access to their markets.
In the most
recent case, Tanzania demanded 25 per cent import duty from Kakira Sugar
Works, alleging its sugar was not manufactured in Uganda but was only
repackaged here.
An official document seen by The EastAfrican shows that Uganda has an annual sugar surplus of 40,000 tonnes.
In order to sell this surplus to its neighbours, Ugandan
officials say they are happy to take their counterparts on a tour of the
factories that manufacture this surplus sugar.
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