Kampala — TMA does not call the shots, but follows a path laid out by the East African Community Heads of State Summit writes WINNIE MANDELA.

Basically this set out the broadstrokes of what the five countries want in a Single Customs Territory (SCT).

The framework spells out the guiding pillars under which SCT will operate free circulation of goods revenue management, and legal institutional framework, operational instruments outlining clearance processes in customs and other agencies to support the implementation of the framework and amendments of the EAC Customs Management Act, were also later adopted.

The SCT business manual and compliance framework were approved. A pilot based approach segmented on the Central and Northern corridor, will progressively cover all goods cleared at the first point of entry.

ICT manpower will also be enhanced to oversee the development of the Territory. TMA’s support to implement the Customs Management System (CMS) for the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) continues. Technical proposals for CMS procurement are under evaluation.

Installation of the CMS and operationalization of the centre of excellence at KRA are expected to boast efficiency within KRA.

The investment is expected to facilitate seamless integration with other national and regional systems to fulfill the EAC Common Market Protocol and create a fully functional customs union

The Burundi Revenue Authority OBR collected 558 billion Burundian Francs (BIF) in 2013 which is slightly 2.1% higher than the target and BIF 34 billion above 2012 collections. OBR remains confident of reaching the FY 2014 target, although the overall collections are 2.7% below target.

The ASYCUDA World Phase 1 installation was completed on time. As a result an important milestone 60% of customs declaration made electronically was achieved ahead of targeted time (June 2014).

The 2013 East African Bribery index scored OBR at 16.4 down from 35.7 for the previous year. This is 54% improvement which surpassed the 24% targeted for the period.

TMA initiated a midterm review and joint design mission for its support to OBR but during the transition period, TMA will continue to provide technical assistance and equipment, but more gradually and cautiously taking into account the changing circumstances.

TMA will also assist other donors to lead the formation of a pool fund that will focus on domestic tax issues. Its support to Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) migration to the web based processing system; ASYCUDA world to improve customs processing times achieved strong results.

These include a reduction in average clearance time from 41 to 30 hours with target of 24 hours eby December 2014, a system roll out to 25 of 35 major stations with usage at 95% and integrated with 220 clearing and forwarding agents, 22 Authorized Economic Operators (AEO’s) integrated with the KRA, RRA and KPA systems under SCT procedure a reduction in clearance time for AEO’s from 4 days to 1 day target use of pre arrival information at 12.2% above the target of 10% and business processing re-engineering conducted.

Key challenges to implementation included system downtime which affected timely realization of targeted results, the low number of URA internal auditors available to conduct audits and the slow progress of the regional AEO programme, which impacted on mutual recognition in the upcoming year, URA plans to procure more servers to mitigate the issue.

TMA will also support URA to accredit 10 more companies as AEOs this year. URA’s early work on introducing the Electronic Cargo Tracking System (ECTS) procured with TMA and World Bank support has the potential to significantly reduce cargo times, increase revenues and boost driver productivity.

TMA’s support towards the elimination of NTBs in the region realized key gains during the year. In Uganda, ten NTB were eliminated following advocacy meetings held by the ministry of Trade industry and Cooperatives with relevant stakeholders both national and regional.

In Rwanda, the National NTB Monitoring Committee conducted a road freight competitiveness study that led to reduction of road toll charges imposed on Rwandan trucks along the central corridor.

It is steered a time cost and distance survey along the central and northern corridors that established the actual causes of delays along the transit routes and organised border committee meetings with Ugandan counterparts to assess the progress and performance of Cyanika border between Rwanda and Uganda.

Source: All Africa

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