South Sudan: Custom Loses 40 Million Pounds in Two Days Due to Exemption

Juba — The South Sudan Customs Services Director General Fredrick Lokule, yesterday in the opening of the South Sudan Customs Office at Juba International Airport Warehouse said that, he picked at random exemption letters of 16th & 17th of February 2012 and calculated the value as reaching 40 million pounds in those two days. Lokule said, the amount which has been lost could pay the whole army of South Sudan for one month and he said in one month they can collect 100 million pounds as revenue. The purpose of opening the warehouses was to make the custom services office (taxation) to control and help to attract businessmen so that they can control the situation of revenue collection in the country.

According to him, they rent three warehouses from Kuol Dominic Dimo as a private sector and the place belongs to the Ministry of Transport in which Kuol built his warehouses with an agreement and the custom now will use the property as custom office for taxation collection. During the occasion, the South Sudan Deputy Minister of Finance and Economic Planning Dr.Marial Awou Yuol opened the custom services to complete all custom procedures of cargo, goods and passenger baggage.

He said it was a great day for custom services and that they were going to start to collect revenue or tax in a good way.. He said, the important point was that the government supports the private sector and he declared the office open and by Monday business would begin earnestly in it. Meanwhile the representative of Aviation Ibrahim Hasawi, appreciated the role of the custom services and believed that it would control and address all problems He said all goods will come across them first. The head of custom warehouse Col. Zakaria Hassan said that they would receive the volume of international trade and the passengers.