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Eastern Equatoria State Minister of Finance and Investment, Peter Lokuju Lotirimoi, wants the organised forces and state security agencies to explain the whereabouts of the money they collected at checkpoints.
Lotirimoi stated this on Wednesday at the opening of a tax harmonization workshop organized by the Eastern Equatoria State Revenue Authority with the support of the United Nations Development Programme in Torit.
The workshop brought together nearly 100 stakeholders from eight counties under the theme “Improving revenue mobilization for effective implementation of public financial management reforms in the state”.
The aim is to raise tax revenue in the event of an economic downturn.
The minister said there were more than 30 roadblocks between Juba and Nimule alone, but there was no accountability for the funds collected.
He said they also clashed with the national government over the collection and use of certain taxes, with both sides making demands.
The Eastern Equatoria State Commissioner of Revenue, Pascal Hifita Oduho, admitted that without taxation, the state cannot function.
He said even as the state government continued to function on the small amount of funds raised locally, the national government never made any transfer payments.
Eastern Equatoria State Minister of Local Government and Law Enforcement Agencies, Peter Lokeng Lotole, thanked officials who collected revenue and remitted it for government operations.
“I thank you those who collect taxes, especially those in the county and city councils. We are well aware that there are problems in the Republic of South Sudan but we in Eastern Equatoria have managed to run our state properly and continue to manage its affairs,” he said.
South Sudan’s transitional government faces the daunting task of reversing an economic recession after a sharp drop in oil production, South Sudan’s main source of income, due to floods and conflict in neighboring Sudan, plunged millions of people into poverty.
Lacking donor funding due to a lack of political will to implement the 2018 peace agreement, the government is trying to extract resources from poorly managed non-oil revenue sectors.
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