The Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) has revealed that “no motor vehicle aged 15 years and above shall be allowed into Uganda effective 1st October 2018.”
In a letter to Association of Motor Vehicle Dealers and Used Car Dealers Association, Dicksons C Kateshumbwa (in featured photo), the Commissioner Customs at URA, says the ban is to fulfill the Traffic and Road Safety Act 1998 (Amendment) Act, 2018.
Clause 14A (1) of the Act says: “A person shall not import a motor vehicle which is fifteen (15) years old or more from the date of manufacture.”
The ban came into force on 1st July, 2018.
Kateshumbwa adds that the ban “includes motor vehicles that will be cleared through the port of Mombasa or Dar es Salam save for those where a customs declaration will have made and released by 30th September 2018.”
URA says motor vehicles aged 15 years and above that were already in Uganda/East Africa by 30th September 2018 will be allowed up to a period of 3 months to pay taxes and register the motor vehicles.
It is estimated that 5500 motor vehicles aged 15 years and above are estimated to be in bonded warehouses.
It is important to note that the ban doesn’t not apply to road tractors for semitrailers, motor vehicles for the transport of goods with a gross vehicle weight of at least six tones, special purpose motor vehicles including; breakdown lorries, crane lorries, fire fighting vehicles, concrete mixer lorries, road sweeper lorries, spraying lorries, mobile workshops, forklifts, mobile drilling rigs, mobile radiological units, works trucks, tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles, cesspool emptiers, water bowser, bullion spreaders, bitumen spreaders, bucket trucks, aircraft refuellers, spraying trucks, workshop vans and mobile banks.
It doesn’t also apply to agricultural or forestry tractors; earth moving motor vehicles, tamping machines and road rollers.
According to URA, Uganda has over one million cars.
