The Meeting of experts was convened following a directive of the Sectoral Council on Transport, Communications and Meteorology (TCM) issued in June, 2021 at its 17th meeting.The Sectoral Council had deliberated on the matter, which had been referred to it by the Regional Monitoring Committee (RMC) on Non-Tariff Barriers. The item had at several times been discussed by the RMC and other stakeholders but a solution had not been found.
The TCM noted that the lack of harmonization of Road User Charges (RUCs) in the EAC has persisted since 2001 and is considered one of the major Non-Tariff Barriers impeding trade within the region. Efforts to harmonize the charges since then have not been successful and the issue exists to date.
The meeting recommends to the Sectoral Council on TCM to direct:
- Partner States to apply the distance + weight charging principle;
- Partner States that use flat rates to abolish them in favour of (a) above;
- Partner States to continue charging RUCs on the basis of the following three categories of vehicles:
(i) Buses (large buses)
(ii) Truck of three or less axles
(iii) Heavy Goods Vehicles of more than three axles (truck with a drawbar trailer or articulated vehicles / semitrailers); - EAC Partner States applying COMESA harmonized rates between themselves to continue doing so;
- Other EAC Partner States to reciprocate the distance + weight rates charges by the United Republic of Tanzania;
- EAC Secretariat to undertake a regional study with a view to proposing harmonized rates in the EAC;
- Foreign registered vehicles to be charged transit fees on the basis of a round trip from the point of entry to the destination and back provided the destination is within the country of entry;
- Partner States to publish in their national gazettes the applicable rates and disseminate the information as required by WTO guidelines;
- Partner States to prepare a schedule of computed charges from points of entry to various destinations within their respective territories and post them at every point of entry