By Ephraim Modi Duku Sokiri
The mayor of Juba city, H.W. Michael Lado Allah-Jabu has cautioned traders to resist paying unnecessary taxes to errant city tax-collectors.
Traders in Juba have severally complained of the unavoidable and multiple heavy taxes from the Juba City Council as well as unfair approach by the tax collectors.
Now, the mayor has come out to alert the businessmen and women to never fall prey of such unwarranted tax anymore.
Speaking at a gathering on Tuesday in Juba, Mayor Michael Lado Allah-Jabu said traders should reject any taxes that are not clear and report them to his authority.
The Mayor made the statement during a panel discussion on waste management in the city, organized by Daniel Mwaka (Daniel’s Show) on Tuesday.
The show is a platform that features concerned people and the youth as a space for social network and reflections on key issues that are affecting the society.
“Please, you try to reject charges that are levied to you without a receipt,” he alerted traders.
Mr. Allah-Jabu underlined that anybody who pays illegal fees to Juba City Council officials or those who claim to be from his office encourages corruption in the country.
“The money is paid without receipt, if I were that person, I would have not accepted to pay the money without receipt, so you people are contributing to the robbers in order to rob you properly, they go with the money home, they don’t even bring the money to the city council,” said Allah-Jabu.
The concern came out in respond to a question asked by one of the members at the plenary show about a hotel that was charged a fine of 100,000 SSP without being issued a receipt by the officers from the city council.
“Yes those are fines that are regulated by our local orders by our bylaws but I don’t know if that’s how it is supposed to be because our people are blind, they are charged, they just pay money and they are hungry, they don’t know their right. So I don’t know if that fine is right or not,” he reacted.
Juba city mayor said it is within the jurisdictions of the city council that hotels are charged for cleaning late.
Mayor Allah-Jabu also puts on notice the hotels that are located in the residential areas and making too much noise, causing havoc in the area to be regulated or even closed down as part of his duties.
“There is something call nuisance in our bylaws, we have already ordered for the closure of that particular noisy clubs and hotels so that at least some of them are fearing these days because we apprehend their system and even I closed some churches because they make a lot of noise,” he lamented.
However, one traders who preferred not to be identified cited difficulty in dealing with the city council officials saying they move with soldiers and padlocks and they (traders) become defenseless for their business which undergo threats of closer.
“These days they even use private vehicles not government or even branded with any city council stickers. They mostly force the closure of the place and you have nothing to do other than complying,” he said.
The second traders who preferred to remain anonymous also told this paper that they are sometimes charged highly that when they try to reject, they lock their business.
“Sometimes they will demand like three hundred thousand (300,000) and when you say you don’t have the money, they lock your place and we don’t know where to report them,” he stressed.
Another trader who only identified himself as Amos said it dependence on the language a trader use to reply to the tax collectors that will prompt the way they act.
“It depends on the language you use to them; they may ask if you have a license, when you tell them you don’t have, they will give you duration of time to come back. So when they come and you don’t give them, they will lock your door,” said Amos.