URA conducts raid on suspected businesses, arrests fraudster

The revenue collection body said it arrested a fraudster who they allege was manufacturing counterfeit products and gazetting them with fake digital stamps.

URA revealed that they got information from the managing director of Ambiance Distillers Limited Kiyimba Joseph who reported a man identified as Bulegeya Joshua of Nansana who was operating an unregistered business and was manufacturing counterfeit Ambiance Waragi with forged digital tax stamps.

 “Our tax investigations team got information that a one Bulegeya Joshua of Nansana was not only operating an unregistered business, but was also manufacturing counterfeit Ambiance Waragi Gin with forged tax stamps,” URA revealed in a statement.

The URA commissioner tax investigations, Denis Kugonza added: “The alert on the tax fraud scheme was as a result of complaints filed to Uganda Police by Kiyimba Joseph, the Managing Director of Ambiance Distillers Ltd.”

In order to determine whether the digital tax stamps were genuine or not, URA submitted the seized samples to the science laboratory for forensic examination. As suspected, the results indicated that the tax stamps were forged and the products were counterfeit.

Bulegeya’s area of operation was mainly in Nansana and other surrounding towns where he sold counterfeit Ambiance Waragi until his fateful day when he was arrested by a joint intelligence team of both Police and URA.

With an 54% of either counterfeit or substandard products in the market, it is estimated that Uganda could be losing up to sh6 trillion to counterfeits and substandard products every year.