Central Equatoria State Seeks Alternative Revenues
The Central Equatoria State Ministry of Finance and Economic Development will organise a forum for revenue generating institutions to counter the recently-announced austerity measures. 14 May 2012 The public is shown the Central Equatoria State’s Transitional Constitution. [Gurtong/ Juma John Stephen] By Juma John Stephen JUBA, 14 May 2012 (Gurtong) – The Central Equatoria State Minister of Finance and Economic Development Jacob Aligo Lo-Lado said on Wednesday that the forum to be convened this month will explore ways of harnessing new sources of revenue “to fill any gap that will be created by the deduction of funding from the central government and decentralisation of the shared taxes”. “The timing of the centralisation of taxes is absolutely wrong because it comes at a time when the government has reduced grants and centralised taxes. So we have to look for alternatives. We have so many sources of revenue. First are construction businesses as well as the possibility of joint ventures with investments to become shareholders”, said Aligo. The Minister was the first to propose austerity measure on unnecessary spending outside the budget on financial assistances, medical cover and other social needs. He further proposed cancellation of financial requests made as early as 2011and were written-off for having bypassed their periods in proposals before the State Council of Ministers after the central government decided to shut down oil production. “Since the shared taxes bring about a lot of friction between the central government and the states, it was decided that the central government should be responsible for recollection of taxes which they will in turn transfer to the states. But I am very pessimistic because of the poor performance of the central government over the last seven years in collection of non-oil revenues”, he said. The Minister called for proper procedures and documentation of taxation in a bid to enhance transparency. Posted in: Home, Parliaments -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "South Sudan Info - The Kob" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/SouthSudanKob?hl=en.
