3.2 Current status of Smuggling in Rwanda
Despite the continuing efforts by the Customs Services, RPD
and other stakeholders to curb this vice, smuggling is still noticeable and
evident. Complaints have been lodged by taxpayers that many products are
illegally ferried into the country that distort their pricing mechanisms. There
is also evidence through captured data that importations of cigarettes,
liquors, beers, powdered milk, jewelleries, etc are dismal yet hugely appear on
the market suggesting that their only route to the market is through
smuggling.
However, apart from irregular smuggling activities at our
borders, physical smuggling is no longer as widespread as it used to be in the
past as indicated in the table below. Nevertheless, cases of technical
smuggling have become very pervasive.
During my visit at borders, it was noted that the regions
mostly
affected by smuggling were: Eastern along Uganda, Burundi
and
Tanzania borderlines, Western Region bordering Lake Kivu and
1 Article one of Law No 21/2006 of 28/04/establishing Customs
system
northern Region along Cyanika-Gatuna border stretch. The table
below shows status of smuggling in Rwanda.
|
Offence Category
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
U nderval ua tion
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Misclassific ation
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Non declaration
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Fraud Facilitation
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Entry card
abuse
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Exemption abuse
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Removal of seals
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Transit Violation
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
False documents
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Other evasions
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Totals
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Source: Customs En forcement Annual Report 2008.
3.3 Classification of smuggling
Generally, smuggling can be classified into
physical and technical smuggling.
Physical smuggling refers to importation of
goods that evade inspection of Customs Services and payment of duties and taxes
by importation of goods through the illegal entries.
Technical Smuggling, on the other hand,
involves fraud through the
use of incorrect information in bringing the
goods through the legal
points of entry. The most common types of technical
smuggling are
undervaluation or understatement of import values, declaration
of false origin, poor or incorrect product description, misclassification or
the use of another tariff line within the same heading.
3.4 Causes of Smuggling in Rwanda
I carried out interview with different Customs officials and
taxpayers to establish the causes of smuggling in Rwanda and observed that
there are many causes of smuggling to the extent that one cannot cite them all
in this report. However, the major contributory factor to the proliferation of
smuggling activities is due to the porous nature of our borders and continued
civil unrests in neighbouring countries.
3.4.1 High rates of duties and taxes
Allegedly high tax and duty rates provoke some individuals to
smuggle goods into the country. When I visited RPD stores to see the goods that
are mostly smuggled, I found that the goods that are predominantly smuggled are
the highly taxed goods like liquors and wines, beers, cigarettes, etc. these
goods are taxed at 30% rate and consumption tax is imposed is imposed on
them.
| 
