Taxman tightens imports scrutiny at Eldoret Airport
Eldoret Airport has become popular with importers due to fast clearance of cargo. PHOTO | FILE |
Imports through the Eldoret International Airport face tougher clearance procedures starting next week as the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) moves to seal revenue leaks and boost security.
Julius Musyoki, the KRA commissioner of customs and border control, said clearance documents for the imports through the airport shall include a packing list with details like name of importer or cargo owner, PIN, passport or national ID, phone contact and physical address.
Other details, he said, are a description of goods, stating quantities and values among others.
“Importers who employ the services of cargo consolidators are advised to submit the required information through their consolidator prior to the arrival of the goods to facilitate prompt clearance,” the commissioner said in a notice.
A consolidator is a person or a company that combines different consignments for different importers in to one lot who delivers each cargo to each consignee.
“The importers, consolidators and the general public are further notified that with effect from April 6, 2016, no importation through the Eldoret Airport will be processed by Customs unless all requirements are fulfilled,” he said.
The airport has in recent years become popular with cargo flights seeking to avoid lengthy queues at the busy Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) in Nairobi.
Traders with urgent orders in western Kenya and even parts of Nairobi often channel their cargo through Eldoret and later ferry it by road to their final destination.
Data showed that most cargo planes using the Eldoret Airport are from the Middle East and Dubai. Traffic to the Eldoret Airport has climbed steadily since the re-introduction of direct cargo export flights to the Middle East in 2011. Direct international export flights were stopped in 2007 due to low volumes of cargo.
Sources told Shipping &Logistics that the increased activity at the Eldoret Airport has triggered a quest for tighter checks to lock out potential smugglers and boost security.
“The KRA has made it compulsory that comprehensive packaging lists be provided before consignments could be cleared. By that it makes it easier to track tax cheats as well as those who may be bringing unauthorised cargo,” a cargo dealer said.
The KRA remains under intense pressure to seal revenue leaks amid massive missed collection targets. The taxman is also under pressure to lock out unauthorised cargo that may be sneaked into the country through the various ports of entry.
As part of a strategy to seal revenue leaks and boost security, cargo scanners in all the main ports of entry are set for upgrade and additional ones installed.
The taxman said the existing scanners would be upgraded to provide sharper image quality and boost their speed and detection capabilities.
Besides the scanners, KRA said in its recently launched sixth strategic plan for 2015-2018 that it would also push on with the implementation of the electronic cargo tracking system (ECTs) to minimise revenue leaks due to diversion of cargo.
A joint real-time transit cargo monitoring scheme by Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda is scheduled to kick off by June to help curb dumping and theft of goods.
The ECTs comprise satellites, a monitoring centre and special electronic seals fitted on containers and trucks, which give the precise location of goods in real time.
The system triggers an alarm whenever there is a diversion from the designated route, an unusually long stopover or when someone attempts to open a container.
Besides curbing theft of cargo, the system also helps to seal loopholes that cause the states losses in revenue through suspected under-declaration of the value of exports.
Kenya and Uganda have successfully piloted the ECTS while Rwanda has commenced trials and targets to fully adopt the system by mid this year.
South Sudan is also expected to come on board soon following its recent admission as the sixth member of the East African Community (EAC).
Key gateway
Kenya introduced ECTs in July 2009 as it intensified a purge against dumping of transit goods in the local market.
The country is a key gateway to the region in that the Mombasa port handles imports such as fuel and consumer goods for Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda, South Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo and Somalia and exports of tea and coffee from the region.
