By Yiep Joseph
Parliamentary Committee for Trade and Industry at the National Assembly has summoned representatives from seven institutions over confusion surrounding implementing the Financial Act 2024-2025.
These institutions include the Ministry of Finance and Planning, Petroleum, and South Sudan Revenue Authority (SSRA).
The concern came at a time when the Finance Act continued to face resistance from the business community as well as traders, who claimed that it increased taxes.
The Crawford Capital (Capital Pay) is among the institutions summoned to answer issues-related questions surrounding the tax payment.
“I will immediately summon the leadership of the following institutions for a meeting: Ministry of Trade & Industry, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Petroleum, South Sudan National Bureau of Standards, South Sudan Revenue Authority, the South Sudan Chamber of Commerce, and the Crawford Capital (Capital Pay). The meeting will be on Tuesday, January 7, 2025, at 10:00 AM (at the committee’s office),” said Eng. Mayen Deng Allier, Chairperson of the committee.
Committee chairperson, Deng, defended that the act was developed to acquire the projected; however, it received confusion.
“The Financial Bill 2024-2025 was designed to help salvage this situation by ensuring the realization of the projected revenues. However, its implementation has been marred with a lot of confusion and resistance from the business community and the consumers,” he said.
He added that in protest of the act, some traders parked their goods across the borders while traders continued to increase prices in the country.
Due to confusion, the chairperson of the Parliamentary Standing Specialized Committee on Trade and Industry expressed concern about the worsening economic situation that requires a solution.
“Our economy is in its worst state ever, and it’s on the verge of a serious collapse if no urgent measures are devised to salvage it, Deng said in the statement.
The committee acknowledges the existence of serious disparity between theoretical and practical implementation of the Financial Act 2024-2025, adding that such can be attributed to lack of ownership of trade functions by the national Ministry of Trade and Industry.
The committee also revealed that there are illegal levies that exist that may not be part of the Finance Act.
“There are a number of levies being illegally charged that are not stipulated in the Finance Act; some charges are duplicated and end up being charged twice by different institutions,” he said.
“There is a need for the Ministry of Trade and Industry to estimate the overall costs of essential products and their projected retail prices, and this should be published in the newspapers weekly,” he added.
In December 2024, at least 1,000 commercial trucks with goods from Uganda destined for Juba were stranded at the congested Nimule border over a high tax dispute and illegal roadblocks.
The development follows the imposition of new taxes on trucks by the South Sudanese government.
According to the long-distance truck association, the taxes prompted a strike by the transport operators.
However, later the South Sudan Revenue Authority reached an agreement with the truck drivers to enter while the implementation of the new taxes remains to face challenges.