A city businessman faces charges of tax evasion after he was found smuggling 350 tonnes of rice.

Police arrested suspect last week and remains detained at Nyamirambo Police Station.

"Acting on a tip off from a responsible citizen, we impounded smuggled rice that had been allegedly on transit to DR Congo, but ended up being offloaded in Rwanda,” Raphael Tugirumuremyi, the Rwanda Revenue Authority commissioner for customs, told The New Times.

Tugirumuremyi said the impounded rice was worth Rwf100 million in taxes, adding that this was an intentional plan to evade taxes.

The impounded rice had reportedly been cleared at Gatuna border post as transit goods to the neighbouring DR Congo, but smuggled the trucks ended up in stores in Nyabugogo, Kigali, belonging to the suspect.

Officials said the suspect was not alone in the dubious act, but was facilitated by some unidentified individuals, including RRA customs officers who are also under investigation by authorities.

Changing packaging

The commissioner expressed concern over some businessmen who import rice from outside the East African Community such as Pakistani, but disguise the goods by changing its packaging to appear like those from EAC, so as to pay lower taxes (25 per cent instead of 45 per cent).

"This is an act that is punishable by law and RRA cannot tolerate this; we shall continue to fight against this business malpractice that leads to loss of government revenues,” he said.

The Rwanda National Police partners with the tax administration in the enforcement of tax and customs laws to fight fraud and related crimes.

The partnership includes preventing, detecting and investigating cases related to combating tax evasion and smuggling and compiling statements for legal purposes.

Police said the suspect’s file has been submitted to the Prosecution.

However, several attempts to get a comment from Prosecution spokesperson Alain Mukuralinda were futile as his phone went unanswered several times.

Upon conviction, a tax evader pays double the tax they were trying to evade in order to reclaim the goods.

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