Gov’t gets 5 billion Pound, $10 million in non-oil revenues in six months 

JUBA – The government of South Sudan announced on Thursday that it has collected 5 billion South Sudanese Pound and 10 million U.S dollar in the last six months from non-oil revenues.

Speaking to the media after his meeting with President Salva Kiir Mayardit yesterday, the Deputy Commissioner-General of National Revenue Authority (NRA) Africano Mande described the collection of 5 billion South Sudanese pounds from non-oil revenue as a great achievement compared to the past six months.

“I must say that as a matter of public record that monthly, we collect about 5 billion pounds and more than 10 million U.S dollar in a month from non-oil revenues and this is an achievement compared to the past six month’s collections,” Mande disclosed on Thursday.

Mande who briefed President Kiir on the performance of National Revenue Authority and its contribution to the economy of the Country said the level of collection tripled this year.

“We managed to reform some of institutions, some of the procedures, some of the operational framework and as a result, we manage to record tremendous achievement,” he said.

He attributed the achievement in level of collections to bold decisions taken by the President to reconstitute Public Finance Management and Economic Crisis Management Committee which reformed the economic sector.

“The achievement is because of the modernized digital system of collecting non-oil revenue which simplifies and complements collection in the country. Now these institutions came up with a series of recommendations, some of these recommendations have found expression at council of ministers resolutions,” he stated.

He revealed that the National Revenue Authority has embarked on using modernized digital systems for collecting non-oil revenue.

“For as NRA we took our parts of the recommendations and we have started operationalization of these resolutions, one of them which is digitalization,”

“Today, we have a full digital system that we have established and we managed to restructure the national revenue authority,”  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 has mandated the NRA to assess, collect, control and enforce laws relating to taxation and revenues in the country.