By Mary Poni
The National Constitutional Amendment Committee (NCAC) has handed over the National Revenue Authority (NRA) act 2023 amendment bill to the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs yesterday.
The Chairperson of the National Constitutional Amendment Committee (NCAC), Mr. Gichira Kibara said the amendment was all about strengthening the office of the NRA commissioner general including the revenue authority as an institution.
He noted that the authority is all about tackling of people who do not want to pay taxes and so they must be able to ensure that everybody pays tax.
“We believe with the new amendments we have brought in; the authority will be very well placed to be able to collect all the revenues, not just to collect but also to account to the people of South Sudan,” he said.
Mr. Kibara said they have also strengthened the provisions for giving reports to the executives and legislators on the activities of the revenue authority in the new amended NRA act.
NCAC also secured the tenure of the commissioner general so that he is able to do his work without fearing stepping on the wrong toes as it is well known that the revenue collection is very sensitive.”
“We hope with this, the commissioner and the authority would be strengthened to collect enough revenue for the development of the country,” Kibara said.
The NCAC chair said they believed the NRA act amendment bill will be passed into law as soon as possible and it would be one of the foundations for the economic development of the country.
According to Kibara, the revenue institution in the country is still quite young and so, experiences have been gathered on the areas of strengthening the revenue collection.
The NRA is one of the most important institutions that is tasked with the responsibility of collecting revenue used by the government for development in form of taxes, customs duties including other various forms from both the private sectors and the citizens.