By Guest Writer
Ashish Monpara, the Chairman and Founder of the Modern Group of Industries in Uganda has reason to be sleepless after operatives from the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) Tax Investigation Department on Thursday January 29, 2026 impounded sugar consignments with inactivated Digital Tax Stamps (DTS) belonging to Kaliro Sugar Company. These had been impounded in Soroti and Masaka.
It has been established that the investor is now a subject of investigations on forgery of digital stamps which is common especially with manufacturers who want to sell adulterated products.
The Ugandan tax law is very strict on using fake stamps or nonactivation of stamps. Ashishi director of Kaliro sugar would, if found culpable, be liable to pay hefty fines up to Shs30m or a potential 10-year imprisonment and growing scrutiny for his business.
URA Commissioner Tax Investigations, Jimmy Ekemu confirmed the impounding of the consignment and said two stores that contained the sugar consignments have since been shut down after URA intelligence team raided the stores after a tip off.
DTS is a mark or label applied to goods and their packaging to prevent counterfeiting sale of fake products on the market. DTS is currently being implemented in different products beer, soda, water, wines, spirits, cigarettes, sugar, cement, cooking oil, fruit among others.
It has been learned that in Soroti, URA operatives impounded 1,300 bags belonging to Kaliro Sugar from two stores. URA in a statement noted that preliminary inspections conducted by the Gizmo machines revealed that: “The DTS affixed to the consignments had not been activated. As a result, URA sealed the stores and referred the matter to the DTS enforcement office in Mbale for further investigations.”
URA in an internal communication to staff also noted that, “in Masaka, investigations officers also sealed a prominent retail outlet after finding 70 bags of sugar traced back to Kaliro Sugar Limited, lacking DTS.”
Agnes Nabwire Asobola, the Commissioner said investigations into the matter are ongoing as TID tightens its grip on tax evasion across the supply chain stating that, “the operations are intended to restore fairness in the market place and encourage compliance.”
She added that operations are guided by verified intelligence, clarifying that, “all manufacturers, importers, distributors and retailers must fully comply with DTS and Electronic Fiscal Receipting and Invoicing System (EFRIS).”
DTS for excisable products was first rolled out on 1 November 2019. This meant that all manufacturers/importers of the gazetted products are required to implement the DTS system by having their products affixed with digitally traceable tax stamps.
URA’s Public Notice was based on section 19A of the Tax Procedures Code Act (TPCA) 2014 which provides for affixation of stamps on all excisable products by local manufacturers or importers and section 19B of the TPCA that imposes penalties for non-compliance to the requirements to affix stamps.
The purpose of this system change is to provide URA with a digital tracking solution which will protect traders who have been struggling against unfair competition from smugglers and non-compliant manufacturers of counterfeit products and illicit traders. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
