South Sudan to set up mechanism to boost non-oil revenue

JUBA – The Commissioner-General of South Sudan National Revenue Authority, Dr. Patrick Mugoya pledged to set up a transparent mechanism to increase the collection of non-oil revenue to 1, 60 billion South Sudanese Pounds in the next five years.

“We are going to implement a measure to ensure that in the medium term revenue collection in the non-petroleum sector is going to increase significantly,” Dr. Patrick told the media in Juba on Thursday.

Mugoya revealed that the vision and the aim of the National Revenue Authority is to increase the collection of non- oil revenue in the country in a bid to boost the economy.

“Our intention and vision in the next five years is to increase the revenue collection on the non-petroleum sector to 1, 60 billions South Sudanese Pounds per annum,” he said.

He said the Tax Authority has discussed the plan with Vice President for Economic Cluster, Dr. James Wani Igga, adding that Wani directed them to go ahead with the plan.

“We received specific guardians and directives from the Vice President especially on the issues related to exemption and control of exemption and also on the matters related to broadly the taxation,” he added.

South Sudan depends on oil revenue to finance its fiscal budget, but oil production was disrupted following an outbreak of conflict in December 2013.

The government established in 2018, the NRA is mandated to assess, collect, administer and enforce laws relating to taxation and revenues.

The establishment is one of the measures to reduce dependency on oil revenues, strengthen non-oil revenue sector and strengthen expenditure control required to achieve short-term fiscal austerity objectives.