URA tasks Police to produce Imaniraguha

Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) is locked in a dispute with the Uganda police on matters concerning the recent arrest of Fuelex and Planet Fuel proprietor, John Imaniraguha over allegations of smuggling fuel into the country.

The businessman had been on the tax body's wanted list for a while until he was arrested on Wednesday, this week.

According to sources at URA, Imaniraguha has for long been smuggling diesel and petrol into the country disguising it as Jet-A1 (Aviation fuel) which is zero rated (tax free). "On other occasions, he has been forging documents of other respectable and tax complaint fuel companies to bring his fuel into the country," the source said.

URA's Ag Commissioner of Enforcement, Agnes Nabwire intimated to The New Vision that Imaniraguha was supposed to be held at Jinja road Police station. 

When URA asked police to present the suspected businessman at their Nakawa-based office, he was nowhere to be seen. It was later learnt that police had released the suspect without URA's consent.

Nabwire stated that Police must produce the suspect to URA for the tax body to do their job diligently. "Imaniraguha has eluded us for a long time. We have a valid arrest warrant and will pursue him until he is brought to book. The circumstances under which he was released from police custody are not clear to us," she said.

"We are still doing more through investigations to establish how much fuel he has been bringing in without paying taxes. Fuelex has been in business for a very long period and we shall be investigating every bit of this issue," Nabwire emphasized.

It is not the first time URA is locking horns with the businessman. In 2010, URA closed Fuelex fuel filling station in Nalukolongo, a Kampala suburb over evasion of taxes and engaging in offloading fuel in transit to other countries.

The station, which is located on the Kampala-Masaka road, was closed in December, 2010 after URA learnt that a tanker offloaded almost 50,000 litres of fuel, worth over sh42m in taxes. The fuel, which had been cleared at Busia customs border point, was officially destined for the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) but ended up in Nalukolongo.