The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) has announced a new customs bond to be rolled out on March 23 to make cross-border trade easier in the region. This new bond has been developed to cover all the countries in the East Africa region, known as the East Africa Community (EAC) Customs Bond.
This new bond will cover traders involved in cross-border cargo movement, including clearing agents, transporters, and freight forwarders.
KRA explained that this move has been informed by a recent meeting of regional leaders, which also saw President William Ruto launch the bond on March 7. This move to introduce a new bond has been informed by a desire to eliminate the need to have separate bonds in each of the countries to cover cross-border cargo movement. Instead, a single bond will cover several countries in the region.
This move is expected to make cross-border cargo movement easier as it will eliminate several challenges associated with having to acquire separate bonds to cover cross-border cargo movement. KRA explained that this move will help simplify cross-border trade and make it easier to move goods across the region.
The new bond has also been developed to use technology similar to the Regional Electronic Cargo Tracking System to track goods as they move between countries in real-time. This move is expected to help authorities monitor cargo more effectively to eliminate fraud, diversion, and non-compliance.
KRA has also promised to work closely with other authorities in the region, including the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA), to make this move a success.
The customs bond acts as a financial guarantee to authorities; in case of any issues such as non-payment of taxes or non-compliance, the bond can be used to cover losses.
KRA has promised to inform traders that everything is in place to roll out this new bond later this month.
