By Bida Elly David
The Vice Chancellor of the University of Juba and an economist has called on the government to impose more taxes on businesses as a mechanism to boost the country’s economy saying that South Sudan is not a poor country.
The intellectual manifested this statement following the consistent recession of the country’s economy as a result of the low gross domestic product GDP calculated from the national income position.
Foreign and domestic merchants over the past months have been triggered and passively influenced by imposition of tariff duties levied into their enterprises by different tax agencies both from the State and the national level.
Traders have raised concerns over the unsystematic scheme of tax collection by the authorities leaving their businesses to undergo serious losses. They called on national and the State government to be cautious on the team selected to go for market inspection since in some advance countries, payment of taxes with the city has been digitalized to avoid misappropriation and pilferage of all kinds.
In a statement extended to No.1 Citizen Daily Newspaper yesterday, Professor John Akec, the VC of the University of Juba reiterated that the revenues collected by the authority through taxes and custom duties can enabled them to facilitate services to the citizens.
He said that government ought to increase collection of taxes in order to create more jobs and pave other opportunities for the people across the country.
Prof. Akec pointed out that through improvement of taxes, the Country would be able to use the revenues gathered to invest in education thus creating more chances of development and inspirational transformation of all the government sectors which would be aspirational to young people and the business community at large.
“We are not a poor Country, we only need to tax more, create jobs opportunities for our youth and invest in education thus we shall transform the nation into a better environment of learning to our generation” he said
At the same juncture, he has called on the authority of Juba City Council to seek help from the school of engineering science of the University on waste management.
“My humble advice to the Juba City Council is that University of Juba’s schools of engineering and that of Architecture and urban planning can help the council in solving waste management, drainage and traffic congestion” he said
Speaking to No.1 Citizen Daily Newspaper yesterday, Pitiya Andrew, an economist and a business man in a reply to Akech’s statement said that an institution can be collecting taxes from people while citizens don’t realize the outcome.
He said that a booming economy can only be defined if all citizens benefit fully from the services of their own democratic government.
“How can a government involve in tax collection while citizens don’t see where the collected revenues go to. It does not make any sense when citizens contribute for the government expecting good services in return but nothing has materialized. Any revenue gathered without citizens benefiting is non-profitable and void” he said
He further stressed that most businesses across the Country have gone under recess due to poor programing by the tax agencies.
“The government is not clear with the setup of the levies on people. The people sent to the field go like battalion of soldiers heading for war carrying fake receipts for issuance. Unless the system is programmed, citizens will not benefit from their collections,’’ he echoed.