Matia Samuel
Africa-Press – South-Sudan. The commissioner-general of the national revenue authority, Athian Diing Athian urged the minister of finance and planning, Bak Barnaba Chol, to speed up the re-screening to avoid over staffing and save resources.
Athian who spoke at the official reception of Mr Chol upon his assumption of duties at the Treasury on Monday, revealed that Dr Dier Tong Ngor had begun the process of re-screening, which should not be stopped.
“The previous minister had just formed a ministerial order for the re-screening of the employees of the NRA because we have issues of overstaffing in the NRA,” he said.
Athian said that revenue body is planning training to enhance quality service delivery but it is still held back by staffing challenges.
“We are going to start widening the tax base in South Sudan so many people can be paying taxes.”
Athian complained of unnecessary tax exemptions and called for compliance between the NRA and other government agencies.
In June, Athian promised to embark on rolling out an elaborate tax base aimed at yielding up to SSP 40 billion per month by the end of the coming financial year.
Also, he planned to review all exemptions to ensure that only statutory institutions are granted exemptions and all other illegal exemptions are nullified
At the same event, the Vice Chancellor for the University of Juba Prof John Akec called on the new minister to prioritise paying the civil servants well. He described the civil servants as the alpha and omega of the government.
“Civil servants need to be well-educated, well competent, and they are well paid than anybody in the country. The way they are recruited and what are their qualifications is important,” Akec said.
He urged the minister to prioritise important issues that need to be addressed to boost the economy.
“Planning is not happening in the ministry of finance and planning, we only have finance but we don’t have planning,” he said.
According to Akec, coordination is one important element the new finance minister should consider. “The country South Sudan needs to rise on tax not on oil revenue, please correct that terminology, the oil does not come to us; we don’t know where it goes.”
Source: The City Review South Sudan
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