EDITORIAL: Follow the law in fight against contraband goods
Loaders offload sugar that was stopped on grounds it contains mercury and copper. More than 500,000 tonnes so far intercepted in ongoing crackdown. FILE PHOTO | NMG
State agencies must step up the pressure on cartels behind the black economy and level the playground for both entrepreneurs and consumers.
Raids on outlets suspected of dealing in contraband goods should be well structured and backed by law.
The ongoing crackdown on contraband goods is a timely first step towards restoring sanity in the Kenyan market.
Participating state agencies must step up the pressure on cartels behind the black economy and level the playground for both entrepreneurs and consumers.
It is in the interest of consumers and the national economy that all goods entering the country are screened for safety and performance standards and all the requisite taxes are paid. This provides a win-win situation because the safety of the consumer is guaranteed while the government gets due tax revenues.
Yet there is beginning to emerge the fact that the agencies involved in this fight are themselves beginning to turn it into a criminal enterprise - punishing traders wholesale or is being used by corrupt officers to loot from traders.
Raids on outlets suspected of dealing in contraband goods should be well structured and backed by law.
For instance, the officers involved in swoops must identify themselves at all times and execute their business in a manner that is allows the accused a fair hearing and leaves the possibility of the recovering their ware once they have settled the outstanding issues. It must be standard procedure that officers involved in the swoops keep an inventory of items seized from outlets and account for it.\
Eradicating contraband from the market will not be an easy task and state agencies must focus beyond the small retailers and arrest the illegal goods right at the source.
The seizure of large shipments of contraband goods in the market points to large loopholes in border posts and Pre-Export Verification of Conformity to Standards Programme(PVoC), whose sole objective is to limit the risk of unsafe and inferior goods entering Kenyan market.
It is baffling that container loads of substandard goods find their way into Kenyan shops undetected yet the Kenya Bureau of Standards (Kebs) has enlisted the services of pre-shipment inspection agents in key source markets.
The crackdown on contraband goods must therefore begin from the source markets and cascade downwards to the big wholesalers and finally to small retailers, who are at times unaware of the status of held stocks.
In the same vein, civic education on contraband among small-scale traders would help with the fight because retailers would be aware of the risks involving trade in illegal goods.
PAYE Tax Calculator
Note: The results are not exact but very close to the actual.
