By Tong Akok Anei Mawien
Mostly when the government or a particular institution is enforcing a law or order, especially in the business sector, the order or law that will have direct effect on business profit making through pricing and its operations is counterbalanced by the business owners in order to neutralize the impact caused by this law or order on their business performances. Their only theme is to keep their profit intact, and the operation cost unshakeable, and that is the sole motive of every business, be it a small or medium business. The counterbalance made by these business owners is either by increasing the prices of that commodity if the order is having a direct impact on the prices, which is common in our South Sudan business sector and the most affected groups are the consumers (the citizens), or by halting the business for a while or stopping the business. Many businesses with low impact services on daily lives are sometimes lost simply like that due to the impact caused by law and order.
These laws and regulations associated with taxes and pricing are the major factors controlling our buying prices in the market and the status of business services to reach the communities timely, it is ludicrous to have multiple taxes owed to many organized government institutions by one particular shop, it is also incongruous to levy heavy taxes to a business you does not know the rang of profit made by that particular business-part of the cause of price skyrocketing in our markets is due to multiple and heavy taxes levy on business owners, some of our taxes institutions does not see the nature of a business before asking for taxes, or the commodities being sold in that particular business-they just need taxes whether you open your shop today or yesterday. They don’t make sure the costs of buying, transport costs, taxes, and profit are put on the commodity by the business owner, and a mere man like us has to pay when the salary is only $3800 and others less than that, and that comes after three months.
Solution: In order not to be part of this economic saga as a government, let’s revise our tax method, let’s revise how many institutions should be involved in tax, and let the government have the alternative such that once the business owners protest a law or order by quitting or halting the business, the government should take up a role. Get to know that the government is also a businessman. Let’s the government have a greater effect in imposing its law and order deeply at the bottom line by monitoring the flow of services at the grass roots. For example, due to the recent order on water tankers, some residential areas are not attended to by water tankers; they avoid going there, and there are reports that others decline taking with that price ordered. If the concern institution had alternatives, it would have taken the role in distributing the water in these areas at an affordable price as well as gaining something in return, and the competition goes as the normalcy returns in the residential areas.
The author can be reached via Tel: 0929300008/0988011119; Email: tongakok7170@gmail.com / tongakok47.@gmail.com