Matia Samuel
Africa-Press – South-Sudan. An undated picture of a weighbridge in Nimule borderpoint. [Photo: courtesy]
The government is planning to install scanners in the Nimule border to fight the influx of contraband goods into the country.
Addressing the National Assembly on Tuesday this week, the National Minister of Finance and Planning, Daniel Awow, said his ministry will team up with the National Revenue Authority to install the scanners.
The First Deputy Speaker, Oyet Nathaniel, had put Awow to task as he sought to know why a good number of trucks crossing via the Nimule border into South Sudan are not fully documented.
“When you go to Nimule, the customs border, or even you cross to Elegu the Ugandan side, the number of trucks coming to South Sudan are in hundreds but when they cross to South Sudan, the records show that they are less by half. If they cross 200, they may be recorded even less than 100, where do the rest of the trucks disappear? Between the border of Uganda and the border of South Sudan,” Oyet posed.
In his response, Awow said: “What we are trying to do now is to help the NRA to put in place machines that will help us also detect the commodities that are inside, because sometimes there is an underestimation.”
He said that installing the scanning machines at the Nimule and Elegu borders help record the exact number of goods crossing into South Sudan.
“If you don’t know what is inside the truck, and if you try to unload, you cannot unload all the trucks that are coming, hundreds of trucks; it is very difficult but through the scanners, you can easily see, and that is why we have ordered the South Sudan Revenue Authority to push this order.”
He added: “I am sure within a few weeks or maybe a month, they are supposed to because it is already set for us to bring these scanners.”
Awow claimed that there are trucks that fail to exit the country through the Nimule route, making it difficult to track the businesses of some traders.
“These are reports that we have received that they (trucks) are round-tripping. You can see many trucks come to South Sudan, maybe because some of the commodities are cheaper here in South Sudan, and then they go back again which means also there is a need for us to make sure that we close the border and monitor it very closely so that we don’t allow the trucks that come and then they go back,” he said.
Source: The City Review South Sudan
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