The Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) this week blocked illegal rice and wheat, which was being smuggled by truck drivers.
Ian Rumanyika, URA Assistant Commissioner of Public and Corporate Affairs said that these were detected using the Non-Intrusive Inspection Scanners, by the Officers at Malaba One Stop Border Post (OSBP).
“With the scanner tip-off, Malaba Enforcement team swung into action and impounded a suspected truck. This had smuggled a tonne of rice hidden in the chassis of a truck carrying steel rolls and officers at Malaba One Stop Border Post (OSBP) used NII equipment to single-out cargo,” she said.
Rumanyika said that NII scanners enable Customs to effectively and efficiently inspect over 1400 consignments daily. The equipment also detects concealed, undeclared and miss-declared goods with an ability to penetrate 300mm of steel and detect 3mm of a suspended wire.
“Practice of smuggling goods especially rice and wheat in truck chassis had grown into a habit for truck drivers and that with this technology the eye of the scanner will expose the drivers and their agendas thus protecting Government from revenue leakages,” he said.
NII Technology (NII technology) are technical equipment and machines such as X-ray or gamma-ray imaging type equipment that allow the inspection of cargo without the need to open the means of transport and unload the cargo and was adopted by URA to block smugglers.