Finance Minister Awow Daniel addresses parliament. (-)

The Minister of Finance and Planning has clarified that companies collecting taxes on behalf of the South Sudan Revenue Authority are doing so on temporary arrangements, amid the ongoing establishment of a system.

Awow Daniel Chuang was responding to lawmaker Juol Nhomngek who asked him to explain the whereabouts of revenue from the taxation, and who is collecting and controlling it.

MP Nhomngek alleged the existence of multiple taxing entities and said the finance ministry must restrict the collection of revenue to the relevant agency to be able to determine the national income.

“It is only when you have known each source and how much we collect from that source, only should we be able to able to determine the total national income,” he said.

“That is when we determine the budget and it is that budget that will set a ceiling now. Why are we fearing? Why don’t we ask the one who is controlling our money, and where is the money? How much do we collect from gold from the airport here? We need to be realistic.”

In response, Finance Minister Awow said, he does know who was collecting taxes on behalf of the SSRA.

However, he believes there are companies temporarily assigned to carry out some of the tasks while a system is being established.

“We don’t know whether there are any other institutions collecting money on behalf of the SSRA, but we know some companies that have been assigned to do some tasks for them but not everything some tasks on their behalf,” Chuang told lawmakers.

“I think this one is like a temporary arrangement for them sometimes when they come up with a system. This system will be run by those companies for some time and then later be given back to them.”

Following Tuesday’s deliberation, the lawmakers inserted an article, restricting tax collections to only the South Sudan Revenue Authority.

According to Changkuoth Bichiok Reth who is the Chairperson of the Finance and Economic Planning Committee, this aims to improve the collection of government revenues.

“The committee recommends the addition of a new sub-section….. to improve the collection of government revenue,” he said in a presentation.

“The South Sudan Revenue Authority shall be the only body that collects taxes for the government and distribute the percentages to the states and administrative areas accordingly.”