Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) has asked the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) to formulate a law for joint collection of customs duties on all goods coming into the region, to be jointly collected at the ports.

KRA assistant commissioner, customs service department, Owuor Ominde told the EALA committee on communication, trade and investment that the tax authority is facing problems in collecting customs duty.

“The major problem today is with Uganda. If Uganda collected its customs duty at Mombasa port, the problem of transit diversion would be solved,” he said. “We would not bother with the transit bonds because the taxes would have been collected at the entry point.”

Owuor was representing at the public hearing convened by the EALA committee at Nairobi Safari Club.

The committee chaired by George Nangale (Tanzania) is on an on-spot assessment of the progress of the customs union.

Nangale said there were complaints from the business community regarding the administration of the customs union and the committee was studying the situation.

He said they would recommend measures to address the problem.

Owuor told the workshop attended by the business community and other stakeholders that the partner states should agree whether the EAC should collect the customs duty as a unit and disburse it or each country is facilitated with a desk to do customs duty collection at the port.