Entebbe, (UG);- The Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) Wednesday said its security operatives and customs officers seized mobile phones worth over Shs200 million (about $55, 000) in a major crackdown targeting apparent smugglers at Entebbe Airport over the last couple of weeks.
Through intelligence-led operations, the revenue body says its officers intercepted at least 781 pieces of smartphones and 108 pieces of button phones destined for the Ugandan market.
Some of the seized phone brands include 258 pieces of assorted Redmi, Oppo, Sony Xperia, Sharp Aquos smartphones, 95 pieces of assorted, refurbished and used iPhones, 287 pieces of Samsung Galaxy phones (both new and used), 10 pieces of used Google Pixel 7, 5 pieces of New Tecno Spark 20 Pro, 112 pieces of Infinix phones, 15pieces of Huawei Smart Phones and the rest are button Phones, commonly known as “Kapeesa.”
The taxman said suspects had attempted to smuggle the phones into the country using devised movie-like concealment methods to “escape the URA hook.”
“Passengers were repeatedly breaking bags on the conveyor belts and sticking their cargo into hand-carry luggage and other nether regions. Some buried them deep in suitcases, mingled with personal belongings that would later be disguised as ordinary “Kadama” (migrant workers’) baggage,” a statement from URA released on Wednesday afternoon read in part.
According to URA, other smugglers conspired with airport trolley pushers and cleaners, hoping to slide their merchandise past customs in unnoticeable travel bags.
“Then there was the “sitya danger” ilk who threw caution to the wind and attempted to dash past the scanner. Some smugglers even applied the usual age-old, desperate trick of strapping phones directly onto their bodies, hoping customs was none the wiser. Unrelentingly, enforcement officers searched high and low and never gave up to counter the tricks of the smugglers,” the authority noted, adding that the offence management is underway by relevant authorities.
URA decried the increasing vice which has become a norm, with phones posing to be the highest smuggled item at Entebbe Airport passenger terminal. “The increase in phone smuggling is largely attributed to ignorance of values and taxes to be paid, and greed by the traders to persistently evade taxes on mobile phones,” the taxman said.
But the authority says it recently deployed enforcement techniques such as passenger profiling, using intelligence networks, CCTV cameras and non-intrusive inspection scanners at the airport in a bid to end phone smuggling.
“With such incidences, URA has improved its passenger profiling skills to easily identify all smugglers and also works with the other operators at the airport such as the security teams that man the CCTV cameras to gather relevant information at places where Customs has limited presence such as Departures, VIP section, and the Old Airport,” URA said.
In Uganda, concealment of phones with the aim to smuggle contravenes section 202 where a penalty is 50 per cent of the value while failure to declare the phones to customs contravenes sections 45 and 46 of the East Africa Community Customs Management Act (EACCMA) 2004, (amended) and a penalty is handled according to section 209 of the EACCMA.
Even with the complex composition of the operations teams at the Airport, URA advised travellers to familiarise themselves with the Customs clearance procedures at the Airport and also heed to sensitization messages so that they are not caught up in customs offences that could result in legal actions against them.
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