Black market fuel dealers in Juba complained Sunday that National Security officers deployed to control queues extort money from them, taking a cut out of their profits.
Joseph, one of the black market dealers, said that he came to fill two 20 liter jerrycans at Tiba Petrol Station along the Juba-Yei Road and was forced to pay money to security personnel at the station.
He says that money collected by the National Security increases the cost to the consumers.
“20 liter jerrycans we normally pay at the station 440 but National Security who are deployed to control the queue ask us to pay 500. They have added 60 SSP and the 60 will not go to the fuel station but to the security,” he said.
Per drum, meanwhile, the cost is about 6000 SSP but about 1720 of that go into the pocket of the security, he said.
According to the source, a senior National Security official visited the Tiba Fuel Station to try to deal with the matter, but shortly after leaving the scene junior officers resumed extorting money from the customers.
Black market fuel dealing is not uncommon in Juba and often even women and children can be seen on the streets of Juba selling petrol. Long queues at petrol stations sometimes leave people waiting for hours, while others leave their vehicles in the queue overnight.
A liter of fuel at the fuel station costs 22 SSP but 1.5 liter on the black market costs between 80 and 100 SSP, which creates an incentive for many to join the business in Juba.