The South Sudan National Revenue Authority (SSRNRA) on Monday revealed it collected 132.6 billion South Sudanese Pounds in March 2025.
Speaking during the opening of the five-day meeting of the East African Revenue Authorities Technical Committee in Juba, Simon Akuei Deng, Commissioner General of the SSRA, described the collection of SSP 132.6 billion in non-oil revenue as a great achievement.
“I also want to thank and congratulate my colleagues from the domestic and customs [departments] and the headquarters, in March 2025, the South Sudan Revenue Authority reported a gross revenue collection of SSP 132.6 billion,” he said. “We have been misrepresented for the last few days by the media that we collected 36 billion. Actually, 36 billion was only from the Nimule border post. We had set a target of 30 billion in Nimule, but we managed to get 36 billion in March. Put together with the domestic taxes led by Commissioner Chol Kur, we reported a gross of 132.6 billion SSP. I want to repeat this because people are misrepresenting us on social media.”
“This is something that needs to be recorded, and it is a record that has never been done here in the Republic of South Sudan,” Akuei added.
This is a significant rise compared to SSP 17 billion in January and SSP 34 billion in February 2025, he said.
The NRA boss attributed the increase in collection to improved tax compliance, enhanced border monitoring, and stricter enforcement of customs regulations.
He expressed concern over the rise of smuggling of goods along the border with Uganda.
“While we were driving from Gulu in Uganda, there was a small Noah [vehicle] that overturned along the way, and when our law enforcement agencies came from the Uganda side, they realized it was loaded with smuggled cigarettes,” Akuei stated. “While we were there in Gulu, just a few days back, this provided clear evidence of how much smuggling is happening across our borders.”
For his part, Beatus Nchota, chairperson of the East African Revenue Authorities Technical Committee, reaffirmed their commitment to continue building strong collaboration to overcome the challenges facing the tax administrations in the region.
“We must continue building our strengths and collaborate to overcome the challenges facing our tax administrations,” Nchota said. “We are the technical foundation of our respective revenue authorities, and it is through our united efforts that we solve the issues hindering our shared success.”
Established in 2018, the NRA is mandated to assess, collect, administer, and enforce laws relating to taxation and revenues.
The establishment is one of the measures to reduce dependence on oil revenues, strengthen the non-oil revenue sector, and fortify expenditure control required to achieve short-term fiscal austerity objectives.