By Aweye Teddy Onam
South Sudanese Pound has hit a record low against the United States Dollar, causing a surge in commodity prices.
No. 1 Citizen Daily Newspaper has established that in the parallel market, as of yesterday, $1 trades between SSP 1,086 to SSP 1,150.
While at the Central Bank, $1 sells at SSP 1,062 and buys at SSP 1,031.
This has caused a sudden spike in commodity prices. Fuel prices have also skyrocketed.
In Kuwait residential Area, for example, a drum of water that used to be SSP 1,000 is now SSP1,300. A boiled egg that used to be sold at SSP 300 is now sold at SSP 350.
This sudden spike comes after the National Revenue Authority and the Trafic Police increased tax rates.
The national director general for traffic issued an order directing all police inspectors along borders to collect 20,000 South Sudanese Pounds from Business Vehicles entering and crossing borders.
While, the NRA increased the conversion rate of merchandise value to SSP 300 per 1 USD instead of the initial SSP 90 that was previously in use.
The orders which were effected on November 1, is being protested by goods truck drivers at the Nimule border point.
The Traders are asking the government to revise the orders.
The NRA stated that the directive was meant to harmonize the official exchange rate that is in use by other neighboring countries and warned of action against defiance of the order.
However, an advisor for the economic cluster, Dr. Abraham Maliet Mamer, had earlier warned against uniform taxation of different types of commodities by the National Revenue Authority (NRA).
Dr. Maliet told this outlet earlier that the current hike in the tax exchange rate would have far-reaching impacts on common commodity prices in the market.
“What I think the NRA should do is stabilize them. If you tax higher-end goods, they will compensate for the tax-free money you give to essential needs. But if you do the blanket, then you will impact everything. Everything will go up,” Dr. Maliet explained.
“It will impact the price of the commodities because those units that are added will add up again. And that will also push the dollar to the next level,” he continued. “The only thing that we can do is review because you need to accommodate this inflation somewhere. So, you should review it so that we segregate it.”
He maintained that essential commodities like food and life-saving drugs should be taxed low or tax-free, adding that they need to be moderately taxed and that there should be high taxes left on luxury commodities like beers in order to do justice to the overall commodity prices.