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Uganda Revenue Authority is set to collect about sh115m in penalties from vehicles that were impounded in anti-smuggling operations in Eastern Uganda last month.

According to Paul Karatunga the Supervisor of Customs enforcement in Eastern Uganda, the nine motor vehicles were caught conveying contraband.

“We recovered 700 rolls of polyester, 11 bales of kitenge fabric, 9 tons of rice, 381 packages of hardware items, and human medicine, which had been smuggled into Uganda through the porous border with Kenya,” he revealed.

The motor vehicles include a super custom, a land cruiser, a Gaia, an Ipsum, a Rav4, a Fuso truck, a trailer, and a Harrier.

Karatunga notes that they have stepped up focused field operations to counter smugglers who use porous borders.

This is in addition to the use of Non-Intrusive Inspection (NII) technology that allows for the inspection of cargo without opening the trucks/containers.

Using this, URA has been able to recover contraband concealed in hard-to-reach places like tractor heads, chassis, toolboxes, fuel reserve tanks, and scrap.

Karatunga has also called for punitive penalties for smuggling to deter people from engaging in the practice.