By Taban Henry
The Minister of Interior has on Friday declared that all the vehicles entering South Sudan will pay 60 US dollars as vehicles registration and control system charges.
Earlier this month the Ministry of Interior and other relevant institutions officially launched a project on vehicle registration and control system at Nimule border post with aim to mitigate and enhance the crimes on vehicles through installation of deductive devices.
Addressing the Media in a press conference yesterday, the police spokesperson Maj. Gen Daniel Justin said 60 US dollars will be collected by the government for each vehicle that enters South Sudan at the border points of Nimule, Renk, Awiel, Kaya, Wunrok and Nadapal.
He added that due to the current economic situation the collection of the initial 100 US dollar charges for the RFID was recently reduced.
He however stated that another extra 10 dollars will be charged for the E-government and Bank charges raising the total charge to 70 USD per car.
“It has been observed the concern that, discussion on social media and other forums about the vehicle registration and control system, it become a concern for the Directorate of Traffic to officially clarify to the public. People were talking about the charges which they talked about 150 US dollars, now the charges that will be collected from each vehicle will be 60 US dollars per vehicle by the government for each vehicle that enters South Sudan from any border point,” Maj. Gen. Justin explained.
The police spokesperson cited that due to the current economic situation the collection of the 100 charges for the project was recently cancelled by the Minister but ordering any vehicle entering South Sudan at any border points to pay 60 US dollars per each.
He said the 100 dollar was raised by the Directorate of Traffic for road users for the sticker in order for the vehicles coming to South Sudan to move freely for a year but because of the current economic situation the Minister refused.
“The 100 dollar charges has to be cancelled until further notice because the traders who are coming into the Country, if they are to pay more money those money will be increased in the prices of the commodities that they are selling in the market and at the end of the day the civilians will be the one paying this cost,” Justin lamented.
According to the police spokesperson the Minister of Interior has directed the field officers to increase the number of tellers to reduce obstruction citing that there were very few windows for clearing the vehicles.
“He ordered the number to be increased to five to enable us to avoid congestion at the border points because the vehicles coming are very big in number sometimes they reach more than 300 per a day”
“This is the clarification that we wanted to make it clear to you because people were complaining not until they say drivers are not coming to South Sudan because of the charges imposed on them but as of now the general situation is normal vehicles are coming and going after the charges were reduced to 60 dollars plus the 10 dollars the E-government charges,” Daniel Justin lamented.