Faridah N Kulumba
Africa-Press – Uganda. The meeting between the officials from South Sudan and Uganda was held in Kampala to discuss strategies for curbing revenue leakages along their shared borders, with a focus on improving non-oil revenue collection. Among the top officials that represented the two neighbouring countries included John Musinguzi, Commissioner General of the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA), and Africano Mande, Commissioner General of the South Sudan Revenue Authority.
According to Mande, the two both Uganda and South Sudan have to work hand in hand to eliminate fraud and individuals impersonating officials to extort traders. He tasked Sudanese revenue officials to profile the gaps within the customs. This will allow the growing South Sudan to benefit from Uganda’s experience. Uganda and South Sudan also discussed the implementation of a new cargo tracking system. Adding that the two nations do not want to invent a new model but rather run from the existing ones in the region. On the other hand, Uganda emphasized the importance of joint efforts and stakeholder sensitization. According to Okaka Geoffrey, Assistant Commissioner for Field Services at the URA, Uganda and South Sudan shall have to sensitize sector players like associations, transporters, and taxpayers. The official clarified that sensitization is crucial for the smooth implementation and adoption of the system.
Strengthening working relations
Towards the end of last year, Uganda and South Sudan signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) and the National Revenue Authority of South Sudan (NRA) to strengthen their working relations. The agreement, which was signed by the officials from both nations, was aimed to facilitate cooperation and collaboration between the two entities in the discharge of their respective statutory obligations.
Action plan
It was agreed upon in the MoU, that URA and NRA have to provide each other with assistance in digital transformation programs like RECTS, tax enforcement planning, information sharing, training, and benchmarks, among other things. At the beginning of the year 2023, URA and NRA signed a bilateral agreement where they resolved to implement joint border patrols and surveillance operations along the borderline to fight smuggling, a vice that continues to eat into the revenues of both countries.
Trade challenges of the two nations
While South Sudan is one of Uganda’s largest trading partners in the region, trade between the two countries is marred by challenges including insecurity, smuggling, and strikes by truck drivers, among others. In 2023, South Sudan government officials committed to putting to an end the rampant cases of extortion and harassment of cargo truck drivers by security and immigration personnel. This followed hundreds of cargo truck drivers from Uganda staged a protest at the Uganda-South Sudan border town of Elegu in Amuru District. The drivers accused South Sudan immigration officials of levying exorbitant taxes on vehicles entering and exiting their country, harassment, and extortion along the Nimule Juba Highway. South Sudan’s National Revenue Authority acknowledged that 70 percent of the complaints raised by the drivers were true and pledged to have them resolved. In 2022, Ugandan and South Sudanese authorities committed to end the cross-border smuggling of fuel. The leaders pledged during a joint cross-border security meeting between the central Equatorial State and the West Nile districts of Moyo, Koboko, and Yumbe held in Yumbe town. Uganda said that the rate at which imported fuel to South Sudan is smuggled through the Kaya-Oraba border point in Koboko district was worrying. Local officials along Uganda’s border with South Sudan noted that both countries should expeditiously address the matter to save their economies. They added that most fuel stations in in Ugandan border side could hardly sell 100 litters of fuel in a day due to the high volume of cheap fuel smuggled from South Sudan through the Oraba border. For years, community members living along the border villages of Palulu, Okidi North and South in Okidi parish in Atiak sub-county have engaged in illegal trade in petroleum, and drugs like marijuana.
Uganda, South Sudan trade volume
South Sudan is one of Uganda’s largest trading partners. In 2021, trade between the two countries was worth USD 389 million, according to the Bank of Uganda report, not considering the large volumes of informal trade across the borders. Uganda’s exports to South Sudan amounted to USD 482.46 million, while imports were USD 10.25 million, about 37.34 percent of Uganda’s exports within the East African Community. Exports from Uganda to South Sudan have increased at an annualized rate of 46 percent, from USD 17.3 million in 2012 to USD 357 million in 2020. The top exports include foodstuffs such as grain, sorghum, cane sugar, and chemically pure sucrose in solid form. In 2022, South Sudan and Uganda held their first-ever Joint Business Forum in Juba, seeking to boost trade and investment ties through industrialization and infrastructure development. The forum and exhibition attracted over 200 businesspeople from the public and private sectors.
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