The Transitional National Legislative Assembly (TNLA) on Monday pushed the South Sudan National Revenue Authority (NRA) Act (Amendment) Bill 2023 to the third reading stage with all observations and recommendations.
The Bill which consists of twenty-nine chapters is to equip the NRA with powers and a mandate to ensure there is compliance regarding tax collection.
Addressing the House after the presentation of the Bill, Africano Mande, the newly appointed NRA Commissioner General, said the Bill will enable the institution to respond to the calls for economic reforms. He pointed out that there are legal challenges related to tax collection that are not clear in the current law.
“As mentioned earlier, it is one of the requirements of the peace agreement and the constitution that this Act is amended. Above all, if you look at the resolutions of the Public Finance Management Committee, there is a constant call for amendment of the NRA Act” he said. “For us, these are some legal instruments that continue to call for amendment of this particular bill. As much as I was appointed the Commissioner General.”
“I have been serving at the NRA for the last four years and I know the loopholes, gaps, and some of the challenges we have,” Mande added.
According to the NRA chief, they discovered that South Sudan has huge gaps in terms of the absence of some provisions in the laws compared to countries like Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania.
For her part, Grace Abalang, a member of SPLM representing Eastern Equatoria State, said the Bill is very important because states that do not produce oil rely on revenues from taxation. She suggested that NRA law should include a provision that gives states that do not produce oil a percentage of the taxes collected from their jurisdiction.
“Honorable speaker I have gone through the Bill and I have not seen anything about the percentage allocated to the states where this money (taxes) is collected. The states, counties, and the communities need to be taken care of,” she opined. “For example, Nimule border town and Magwi County need to be taken care of. We cannot be generating huge revenues in billions from there and our people still live in poverty.”
Abalang insisted that there should be a provision in the NRA Amendment Bill that gives a percentage of the revenue generated to those particular areas where the money is collected.