South Sudan's English Daily Newspaper
"We Dare where others fear"
By Ezekiel Lol Gatkuoth
It is public knowledge that many people are concerned about the status of our economy in the Republic of South Sudan. Surely all of us are concerned about the welfare of our people.While I respect the Economists and their field in handling difficult scientific solutions to our economy, I also believe that the economy can be managed in the same way individuals manage their families’ finances. If one can succeed in managing family finances, you can also find solutions to bigger economic solutions.
Now, with our economic team under His Excellency Salva Kiir Mayardit working day and night to solve some of the challenges we are facing economically there I propose some Layman solutions, which I believe will help in this endeavor.
1. Total ban of all the exempted goods and services.Many people are getting exemptions from the Ministry of Finance and Planning for their goods and services. This process takes lots of money from the national coffers and should be banned totally. All goods and services must be taxed
2. Referral goods and services are to be cleared in Juba instead of Nimule and other border points
Some decisions are made to request some trucks to be cleared in Juba. This is another way to avoid paying tax. All the trucks should be cleared in Nimule or other border points.These two steps can boast our tax collection revenues. I am sure that instead of collecting 35 billion SSP a month, the Republic of South Sudan will jump to 150 billion SSP a month. The data is there to prove this.
3. Increase of oil production.The Ministry of Petroleum must convince the International Oil Partners (CNPC of China, PETRONAS of Malaysia and ONGC of India) Diplomatically to increase oil production in 90 (ninety) days from the current state of 150,000 barrels a day to 300,000 barrels per a day or more.
The issue of Sudan should be tackled too using backdoor Diplomacy to engage the main players in the war of Sudan. The main players are Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemetti) and Gen. Abdel Fattah Al Burhan to be engaged.Now, with all these three steps, if taken into consideration, the Republic of South Sudan will have more money to build roads and pay civil servants on time, including our health and education workers.
This is a Layman account of economic recovery to support our country.
