By Daniel Mwesigwa

In an update on the backlog at Malaba border, Uganda Revenue Authority says the total number of Home-bound Fuel Trucks in Busia has been low attributed to a system downtime across the border on the Kenyan side that has since improved.

According to URA, a bilateral meeting between the Cabinet Ministers of Works and Transport, Ministers of Trade from Uganda and Kenya, and other agencies resolved yesterday to reduce the backlog, requesting Kenya Revenue Authority to allow more export traffic inflow into Uganda and reduce imports in a phased manner.

URA is also directing all empty trucks and trucks with perishables of less than 7 tonnes to go through Lwakhakha while Kenya Revenue Authority is suspending the scanning of trucks to Uganda at Malaba OSBP until the crisis is managed.

“The target is to clear 1500 trucks a day,” URA said in a tweet Sunday morning.

“We are exploring the Integration of the scanner systems on both Kenya and Uganda to enable faster analysis of cargo moving forward,” the statement reads.

According to URA, the taxman’s Commissioner for IT & Innovation is on ground, “Working with our counterparts KRA we are focused on clearing the backlog by Wednesday this week.”