The busted unstamped flavoured water
“The party must be partied,” says a line in a song called Enjoyment by Rickman, a Ugandan hip-hop artist based in Sweden but for a vigilant revenue officer, the revenue nose must always be active even at a party.
This is exactly what happened last week when a compliant Taxpayer who was attending an evening get-together party on Tuesday noticed that the flavored water that was being served to the guests was unstamped.
According to Ian Rumanyika, the Public & Corporate Affairs Manager at URA, immediately, the officer reached out to the DT enforcement team with the information about the presence of unstamped Atis Flavoured Water on the market.
“DT enforcement quickly made their homework; they located the factory of the producer of Atis Flavoured Water – Balaj Group in Kawanda and duly paid them a visit,” Rumanyika says.
He adds: “Indeed, Balaj Group was found with 4,068 cartons of different flavors of bottled water. The DT enforcement team spearheaded by Moses Kondo and Robert Amanya also established that the company has also been keeping unstamped water in its Kawempe store before distribution.”
Rumanyika notes that Balaj Group faces a penalty of Shs53,436,664 for failure to affix stamps on the gazetted product (flavored water)
Another operation yields 802 cartons of unstamped wine
In a related development, yesterday afternoon John Lubakwidha, a URA officer noticed empty bottles disposed off at Corner Mission in Kitgum Municipality.
He immediately prompted the fleet assistant to stop. John, together with PC Etalu Joseph, a police officer attached to Kitgum DT examined the bottles to find out what their content was and their country of origin.
“The duo noticed that the bottles belonged to BEB Wine, a product made in Lira. Most importantly, the bottles did not bear digital stamps. John urged both the driver and the police officer to always be on the lookout for any vehicle conveying this product because it is unstamped after which they all proceeded to Kitgum office to serve the clients,” Rumanyika told Business Focus.
Little did John know that this little lecture would deliver immediate results later in the day.
“At around 15:10hours, PC Etalu Joseph called John and informed him that he had a truck Reg No UAS 326W in his sights parked on one of the busiest streets in Kitgum Municipality loaded with BEB WINE,” Rumanyika narrates, adding: “John rushed to the place and quickly examined the wine on the truck and indeed , it was unstamped. John immediately rang Kitgum DT’s Nicholas Ogaba who also showed up in a heartbeat together with DT officers’ Ssebugwaawo Godfrey and Solomon Onono. The driver of the truck in question was ordered to drive towards the Kitgum office.”
He adds that joint verification by both Madi Opei Customs and Kitgum DT has been done today morning revealing 802CTNS X 24 BOTTLES X 300MLS of unstamped BEB WINE found on the truck.
“Statements have also been obtained from both the owner of the goods and the driver. Offence management has ensued,” he says.
