Invesco Electronic cargo tracking systems has kick started operations in South Sudan.
The entry of Invesco saw K-Polygon kicked out after failing to hit the targets given them by South Sudan Revenue Authority.
Last week government of South Sudan through its National Revenue authority (NRA) partnered with Uganda Revenue Authority to weed out smuggling and dumping.
Sources says the government of South Sudan wasn’t happy with the performance of implementation of K-Polygon as it failed to combat smugglers and economic saboteurs.
“Collections from customs have been low, pushing us to make tough decisions. Invesco’s services will help us improve collections said Africano Mande, Commissioner General of South Sudan Revenue Authority is quoted by The City Review newspapers.
However, in an article that appeared in the press recently, there appeared to be contestation by some ‘disgruntled elements’ doubting the development.
“We have noticed an article that seem to slander Invesco and making false allegations that Invesco doesn’t have a contract but to the contrary Invesco signed the contract with the government of South Sudan”.
In a December 2023, contract which Eagle Online has seen, Invesco has been given powers to train, operate and implement.
“Oegfrem’s grateful acknowledgement for the effective partnership in place between Invesco/Transcom OBO Ogefrem with URA for the purpose of enforcement of Ogefrem certification whose duties include the verification of all surface and airfreight Ogefrem certifications issued by Ogefrem appointed Agents and Ogefrem offices pertaining to exports distained to exports for DRC transiting and/or originating in Uganda” reads the letter.
Last week, Commissioner General of South Sudan Revenue Authority (SSRA) Africano Mande paid a visit to URA Commissioner General John Musinguzi to discuss his country’s plans to apply new cargo monitoring system.
Commissioner Mande announced the collaboration between SSRA and INVESCO, Ugandan company that will provide cargo-tracking technology.
Collections from customs have been low, pushing us to make tough decisions to improve. Invesco’s services will help us improve collections and even exceed our targets’ Commissioner Mande said.
However, as the development are progressing, an allegedly smear campaign is being propagated by a lady known as Winne whose husband works with URA and possibly aiding smugglers and benefiting from the racket.
Sources further allege that K-Polygon is suspected to be aiding a French intelligence on spying on business companies in the region and hence may countries in the region are dumping it
He further said that SSRA hope to learn from URA.
The Democratic Republic of Congo signed Invesco in 2021 when its revenue collections at border points were low. DRC was collecting $9 million per month but as per statistic from the revenue body in DRC, it is estimated that they collect approximately, $220 million per month as compared to $9 which represents 400% growth in revenue collection.
Previous efforts by South Sudan government and Revenue Authority to curb this revenue loss has failed through a company called K-Polygon and hence, they reverted to URA and Invesco to give them a solution like they did in Congo and this should help raise revenue for both URA and South Sudan Revenue Authority(SSRA) in a bid to raise revenue and help curb smuggling and dumping.
Uganda has been losing a lot of revenue on dumping which also causes inflation in the economy.
This will also reduce the VAT refund racket where people claimed to heading to South Sudan and leave goods on the market while claiming for VAT refund from URA. It is estimated that Uganda has been losing about Shs10 billion a day while South Sudan could have lost more.
