Authorities in Jonglei State have urged all local and international NGOs to remit personal income tax, despite a ministerial order suspending remittance of income tax.
On April 17, the Humanitarian Affairs minister, Peter Mayen Majongdit directed all humanitarian agencies to halt remittance of personal income tax (PIT) in the former 32 states until state governments are formed.
Mabior Atem, the Secretary General of the defunct Jonglei State, told Radio Tamazuj on Thursday that he was unaware of the ministerial order, insisting that taxes from NGOs are essential for the state government.
He gave NGOs a 48-hour ultimatum to pay or face repercussions.
“We cannot really say anything about the [minister’s] order because we are not copied. The one which I wrote is appealing to all the NGOs in the state to pay their share of PIT,” Mabior said.
He added, “If they cannot pay, we cannot run the state. Since February, some have not been paying their taxes and when we ask them they say there was communication that they should not pay. If any NGO fails to pay taxes, we will subject it to a lawsuit”.
The Humanitarian Affairs minister could not be reached to comment on the matter.