Trucks at Malaba, the border town between Kenya and Uganda. FILE
The regional parliament has passed a Bill making it mandatory for member states of the East African Community to construct special one-stop border posts in a bid to improve trade flow.
The One-Stop-Border-Posts Bill 2012 has now been forwarded to the EAC Heads of State for consent after the East African Legislative Assembly (Eala) gave its nod last Tuesday.
“The Bill makes provision for the application of border control laws and provides for institutional arrangements in the co-ordination and monitoring of the one-stop border posts. In so doing however, the Bill does not affect the rights of any adjoining Partner State(s) to take temporary measures in the interest of defence, security, public safety and public order,” the EAC secretariat said.
The one-stop border post concept is aimed at harmonising transit clearance, with two officers from bordering countries sitting under one roof to handle transit documents concurrently in order to save time.
Currently, traders in the region are hampered by strenuous customs clearance procedures in which goods are separately inspected by officers on either side of the border leading to massive delays.
Impatient truckers and traders resort to offering bribes either to jump queues or expedite cargo clearance.
Analysts said the harmonisation of customs clearance on common borders would help to cut back on processing time and substantially reduce the cost of doing business.
The special border posts will include Taveta-Holili border and the Namanga border (Kenya-Tanzania), Busia and Malaba borders (Kenya – Uganda) and the Kanyaru-Akanyaru border (Burundi-Rwanda).
Others are the Mutukula border (Tanzania-Uganda), Gasenyi-Nemba border (Burundi-Rwanda) and Lungalunga-Horohoro border (Kenya – Tanzania).
Mr Joseph Kiangoi, a Kenyan legislator to Eala, says the Bill will help open up trade in the EAC bloc amid growing interests by investors.
An experimental facility erected on the Kenyan border with Uganda at Malaba has already yielded success. Prior to its establishment, truckers required two days to clear with customs officials but this has since been slashed to an average two hours or less.
PAYE Tax Calculator
Note: The results are not exact but very close to the actual.
