Britania Allied Industries Limited v Uganda Revenue Authority
High Court, Civil Appeal No. 0042 of 2023. July to December 2025. Coram: Hon. Lady Justice Susan Odongo.
Customs Classification of Fruit Pulps · Duty Remission · The Doctrine of Legitimate Expectation
For years the Revenue Authority cleared mango and guava pulp under a duty remission scheme. Then an audit reclassified it and sent a bill for the past.
The situation
A biscuit and beverage maker, an Authorised Economic Operator, imported mango and guava pulp under a duty remission scheme from 2013, with the Revenue Authority's recommendations and gazettement. A post-clearance audit of 2017 to 2020 found the pulp classified under apple and orange subheadings and assessed a short levy of UGX 1,246,386,089. The Tribunal agreed with the reclassification.
How it was resolved
The High Court allowed the appeal on every ground. The Revenue Authority may correct a wrong interpretation, but a change of position takes effect from when it is made; charging tax for years it had approved and cleared the goods was 'conspicuous unfairness' and unlawful. On the technical question of whether the pulp is juice or a raw material, the Court referred the matter to the World Customs Organization and kept the existing classification meanwhile.
What a practitioner takes from it
Keep the Revenue Authority's own approvals, recommendations and clearance history: here they decided the case.
A correct reclassification can still be unenforceable for the past.
What could change
Binding advance classification rulings, with a clear rule that a change applies only from the date it is notified, would remove this whole class of dispute.