Government warns traders against hoarding of goods

JUBA — The government of South Sudan’s Central Equatoria state has warned traders against hoarding goods in light of decline of dollar rate against the local currency with the aim to increase the price once the dollar rate surge against the local currency.

The Central Equatoria state Minister of Trader and Industry, Wani Tom Sebit, disclosed that some traders are stocking essential commodities after the dollar dropped with intention to resell them expensively when the exchange rate of the U.S dollar increase.

“When dollar rate dropped, people (traders) hide their goods and when the dollar goes up, they open their stores and start selling the goods expensively even when the goods expire. They don’t care about the people,” Tom said during a meeting with traders in Juba yesterday.

The senior state government official further warned traders against keeping the prices up after the rapid decline of the USD rate after government injected millions of dollar into the economy.

“When the dollar drops, people (traders) remain stagnant, they don’t reduce prices of their goods and when the dollar increases, people increase their prices immediately with an increase in dollar rate,” he said.  

The State Minister revealed the state government will work hard to address the overlap of taxes on imported goods from neighboring countries.

“The issue of multiple taxes or overlap of taxes would be resolved by state and local governments. We will be working closely to address the issue of overlap,” he disclosed.

“The State Chamber of Commerce must have a rate schedule to inform the traders on what amount is supposed to be taken from them,” he added.

He advised the traders to exercise business ethic to mitigate exploitation of the consumers.

“The environment of business in South Sudan shouldn’t be for exploitation and that is why today as the government, we want to really work in collaboration with the business community to address these issues in the market,” he said.

As of this morning, $1 is traded at 450 South Sudanese pounds, compared to the previous week where it was traded at 620 South Sudanese Pounds.