Hiked by different complaints of delays in clearance of goods at different border points, Uganda Revenue Authority ruled out the Authorized Economic Operators initiative along the electronic cargo tracking system to streamline goods clearance. The Authorized Economic Operator arrangement was an initiative that seeks to enhance trade by reducing the cost of doing business through simplifying customs procedures. TOTAL Uganda was one of the few gas companies certified by URA. According to TOTAL's Managing Director Florentin Loppinot, the status was worth taking. “The opportunity of this program to actually challenge the things that we do to see how we could do it better and to see how we will be judged through the audit process that comes with the URA certification program. So we were audited I think more than 60 of our documents were accessed during the time, interviews were conducted of myself, the management team of theirs, our representative of the company.” Said, Florentin De Loppinot – MD, TOTAL Uganda Ltd.

The Authorized Economic Operators if embraced by majority companies and importers were expected to encourage compliance to enhance revenue collection in addition to saving clearance time. “That trucks are no longer inspected at the border so you save time, you avoid transit damages as well on our cargo because you don’t need to stop, you don’t need to get inspected, its less altered through this process, we are also able to save on damage…” Loppinot said there is need for importers and exporters to acquire the Authorized Economic Operator's Certificate to boost a safe framework of standards and facilitate trade. “It’s an opportunity for us to get our goods, our entries processed faster and our goods faster. So that is something tangible, Uganda is landlocked as we all know. Because we are landlocked we import everything so there can be delays at borders if you don’t have the necessary paperwork or if there is a long queue so being AEO is a VIP pass.”

Betty Kiguli the Procurement Manager of Nice House of Plastics said before being issued an Authorized Economic Operator's Certificate they were bringing about 240 trucks a year and clearance of their goods was tedious. "It has been the self-management of the bond, we now control the bond there is no Uganda Revenue Authority in it. All they have to do is to do a post-clearance audit and see that all the consignments that came in were with all due diligence because we tax compliant we paid the taxes." Said, Betty Kiguli – Procurement Manager, NHP.

For Nice House of Plastics’ decision fold an increase in volumes of goods which has come along with several benefits including automatic renewal of licenses. “The customs agent license, the bonded warehouse license are automatically renewed. So all those have been benefits to us, we are audited only every three years. But one of the things we have come up with in the last 10 years is to make sure well as we are audited only every three years we have pre-audits so that if there are any errors that come up we are able to resolve these issues.” The Authorized Economic Operators is a program introduced by the World Customs Organization in conjunction with the National Customs Administration to create a balance between trade facilitation and security associated with import and export businesses across international borders.