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NRA in quandary as poor internet, insecurity impede collections

By Bida Elly David

National Revenue Authority has said that poor internet connection, insecurity and infrastructure are factors that have impeded the collection of revenues through the E-taxation system.

It said that government needs to raise up eyebrows towards addressing the underlying factors to enable effective collection of revenues.

The concerns came during a three days’ drill on the fundamentals of Information Community Technology (ICT) in generation of revenues to the government through E-tax device and technology.

Last year, the National Revenue Authority reported number of custom malpractices demonstrated by some officials at the border hindering the activities at the custom duties especially on issues concerning financial collections from tariffs.

They came up with the E-taxation device meant to be used for entering any trading information, collections and merchants’ information for accountability and proper use.

Despite the introduction of the system, some officers demonstrated against the idea of introduction of the electronic system arguing it was time consuming and required serious induction to master it.

Speaking during the drill, Phillip Papa an information technician from the national revenue authority said that they are facing hardship in reaching the E-taxation device for tax collection to states due to the random attacks on highways and the poor internet network at the state customs.

“What is facing NRA towards reaching E-taxation service are as follows. Infrastructure is a challenge. We have limited infrastructure in place. Some of our system in our premises is in hostage by our developers which became difficult for us. Internet is a problem” he explained.

“We have tried commercial internet for users because they are using web day systems. The cost of internet is higher despite having fiber in the Country. Most of our locations in the states are not having internet. Our vendors should look into that and our government” he continued.

The NRA IT technician said that the role of the National Revenue Authority was to leverage total transformation to ensure effective revenue collection to the government of South Sudan thus the exercise could not happen without the use of technology as a means for monetary generation.

Phillip said that they were also implementing electronic document management system for easy access of any information as well as for improving the collection of revenues through tax payers. He said that educating tax payers through the E-taxation device and the website was crucial.

According to Philip the system would enable tax payers to carry out payments in their states without coming to the city for necessary registrations.

“We are having a website for keeping our data and information sharing” he stated.

Philip stressed that they need to improve in their revenue collection and to improve in these they need technology and systems.

“NRA is leveraging in technology to ensure revenue collection. We are also having a Website for communication and information sharing. You know educating our taxpayers is very important for us. Giving information to them is very important for us. Our tax payers cannot come from” he lamented.

The NRA IT personal said that if all are corrected, the taxpayers in states would be relieved from the burden of paying direct taxes through the use of the E-Taxation system for data entry.

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