Sale of sachet waragi comes to an end

The Police has issued warning to companies that manufacture sachet waragi (Alcohol) in sachets to compel with the deadline that ends on Friday, May, 31, 2019.

Kampala Metropolitan police spokesperson, Patrick Onyango said, during press briefing, that companies that will not comply with the deadline will be closed.

The Trade, Industry and Cooperatives Minister, Amelia Kyambadde set May 31, as the deadline for stopping the production and distribution of sachet waragi. The existing stock of sachet waragi is expected to be utilized by the expiry of the deadline.

The commercial manufacture and consumption of waragi packed in sachets was delegitimized in 2017 on the basis of health and environmental concerns.

The same order invoked price control mechanisms to prohibit access to smaller quantities of alcohol to the population.

Onyango said the government tasked alcohol producers to install bottling machinery for packing gins beyond 200-millilitre quantities.

He said the Police with other government agencies have teamed up to ensure that industries that violate the ban are closed forthwith.

The team is comprised of officials from Ministry of Health, the Police, National Environment Management Authority (NEMA), Uganda National Bureau of Standards and Uganda Alcohol Manufactures Association.

The Managing Partner Stop Counterfeits Products- Africa (SCP), Allan Mulindwa, said there are still many industries, especially city suburbs that are still manufacturing the sachets.

"We have many cases where we have moved around city suburbs such as Kawempe and realised that many of companies have not enforced what the government asked them to do so," he said.

Mulindwa said that there are going to work with Uganda Revenue Authority (URA), the Police and security agencies to ensure that companies that do not comply are blacklisted and lose their licenses.

"We have alerted URA to blacklist any company that is dealing in counterfeits products and this is going to be done through identifying there Tax Identification Numbers (TIN)," he said