SIR — I am an importer of secondhand items from Japan and the UK.
Recently, I imported used radios and expected to pay the usual sh6,000 customs duties for the smallest radio.
To my dismay, URA demanded an additional sh30,000 per radio, big or small. This means I have to pay sh36,000 for the smallest set. I wonder at how much I will sell it to my customers!
A small radio goes for about sh10,000 in Kampala. When I protested the hiked dues, the URA officer showed me a circular from the Minister of Finance, Ezra Suruma.
What is this fixed sh30,000 for? Am I the only one ignorant of such a fundamental change in a trade I have dealt in for over five years? Don’t traders deserve being educated on new taxes and their implications before they are implemented?

Name withheld