By Bida Elly David
National Ministry of Finance and Planning has issued an order for the operationalization of Electronic Cargo tracking notes at the border points.
According to Dr. Bak Barnaba Chol, the sole purpose of the device is to help the government of South Sudan maximize its revenue collection.
It remedies the challenges of underestimation, undervaluation and diversion of Cargo round-tripping.
The minister directed the national revenue authority, revenue customs division to immediately implement the order.
“The operationalization of the mandatory electronic Cargo tracking note (ECTN) shall be undertaken by the customs revenues division of the South Sudan Revenue Authority and INVESCO being the legally contracted agency,” the minister noted in a statement.
For effective implementation of the orders, Minister Bak directed the NRA to ensure payment of agent’s service fees.
“All exporters and importers are therefore required to comply and pay agent’s service charges of USD 350 for an unconstrained movement of goods across the borders,’’ he added.
Furthermore, Minister Bak echoed that the cross-border operationalization of the device is mandatory for exported or imported trucks of goods.
According to a statement issued by the NRA, all necessary communications have been made to the neighbouring Countries concerning the effectiveness of the initiative.
The introduction of the electronic Cargo tracking Note aims at monitoring the outflow of goods from South Sudan and the inflow of goods from other Countries.
The ECTN will be applicable to all cargo carriers of exports from South Sudan and cargo carriers of imports into South Sudan.
In a letter dated 1st-Feb-2024, Commissioner General of South Sudan National Revenue Authority (NRA), Africana Mande made official communication to his Kenyan counterpart on the implementation of the venture.
Meanwhile, South Sudan has been struggling with cases of illegal undeclared entry of goods into the country. Some of the goods are expired while others are of substandard quality.
For instance, in 2022, National Ministry of trade and industry had testified illegal night entry of sub-standard commodities into the Country by some traders.
Former undersecretary of the ministry, Mary Akec affirmed at the time that sub-standard goods were being smuggled to the country at night when boarder officials go off duty after eight hours of operation.
Not only that in October last year, had the national Bureau of standard saved the Country by impounding 62 trucks full of afro-toxic grains.