Africa-Press – South-Sudan. President, Salva Kiir Mayardit has warned the states, counties and Payams level not to interfere inthe tax collection mandated to National Revenue (NRA).
Speaking during the closing of the 5th Governors’ Forum,President Kiir directed all the States and Counties level to respect and strictly adhere to the taxation act 2009.
“As a country governed by the rule of law, the taxation act 2009 should be respected and strictly adhere to and the National Revenue Authority which is mandated to administer it should not be interfered with by any state or county levels, we are not oblivious about the fact that the work you are undertaking at State and Administrative areas have massive resource implication,” he said. He added that the StatesGovernors and Administrative Areas Chiefs not to attempt to decentralize the Non-Oil Revenue collection.
“We know that sometimes this intensive resources needs pushes some of you into revenue collection areas, especially in areas assign to National Revenue Authority. but the goal of the National Revenue Authority (NRA) is to allow the Central Government to have accurate focus of the Revenue generated for budgeting purposes, any attempt to decentralize non-oil revenue collection now we will compromise this function in our financial sector,” he added.
However, Kiir also called upon the Ministry of Finance to redouble the efforts in releasing the money allocated to the States. “Am calling upon the Ministry of Finance and Planning to redouble the effort in releasing the money allocated for the States and Administrative Areas,” he stressed.
He added that on many occasions, there are power overlapping between National Government, States and Counties in taxes collecting adding that the matter would be resolved when the Permanent Constitution amended and passed.
The main objective of the 5th Governors’ Forum was to enhance, engage, and solve problems and decision-making in the areas of policy reform and resource allocation.
The NRA was tasked in the Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan (R-ARCSS) and in the NRA Act (2016) with pooling and administering all collected revenues in a single treasury account.
Simultaneously, the R-ARCSS and Local Governance Act also stipulated responsibilities for States and Local Governments to collect and manage revenues, without clearly demarcating the individual responsibilities of each institution and level of Government.
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