With two days left for Rwanda to implement the East African Community Customs Union (EACCU), Rwanda Revenue Authority (RRA), trained journalists from various media houses on the changes that will come with the development.

Journalists had initially expressed fears that embracing EACCU will negatively impact the expected tax collections.

RRA officials pointed out that increased flow of goods and services in the region will lead to an increase in consumption, thus more value added tax (VAT) will be collected.

"EACCU allows free flow of goods and services. This implies that they will be cheaper and prompt higher consumption. Increased VAT will hence compensate for the lost revenues,” Vincent Gatete, an official in the Customs Section explained.

Citing the business community’s fear for competition in a wider market, the Director of Tax Payer Services, Gerald Nkusi Mukubu urged the media practitioners to encourage Rwandans to produce high quality goods.

"It is advisable that they even increase their level of innovation so that as we open up to a wider market, we too can have some unique products to offer. We should not only reflect on the fact that customs tax will have reduced but also on what we can take to this wider market,” he said.

By implementing the EAC customs law, Rwanda will adopt the EAC common external tariff which has 3 band-tariffs structure.

Raw materials in the region will be at zero percent, intermediate goods will move from 15 to 10 percent while finished goods will be charged 25 percent rather than 30.

Officials also emphasized that the EACCU will promote development and diversification of industrialization in the community.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
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