The government has unveiled plans to establish a specialized business court to hold corrupt dealers and tax evaders accountable.
This move, according to senior government officials, is meant to tackle persistent corruption within the country’s marketplaces.
Speaking at the launch of the National Trade Forum at Radisson Blu Hotel, National Minister of Livestock and Fisheries, Onyoti Adigo, warned that individuals caught engaging in market corruption would face imprisonment.
“Anybody found bribing people should be jailed. We have to establish a market corruption court to deal with people immediately. And even people evading taxation,” Onyoti Warned.
The proposed court is part of efforts to address what Minister Onyoti described as ‘flaws’ where influential figures within the government utilize foreign nationals to operate their businesses and subsequently interfere with established policies.
“I have talked a lot, but I need to say this because some people are hiding behind the curtain; they talk smoothly without doing anything good for the nation. So we need to come up with a legal framework based on the policies of the Ministry of Trade and Industry,” he added.
He stressed the need for a legal framework to counter such hidden influences.
Minister Onyoti urged law enforcement agencies to investigate the situation, alleging that powerful individuals are manipulating market policies.
“There is a big involvement of some big people in the market. Some foreigners are being used by some big people to run their business or market. And when people go there, they say this is for big people. [And when you insisted], they called their big people to come and interfere. This is not good,” he argued.
Minister Onyoti further criticized what he views as a misunderstanding and misuse of the ‘free market’ concept within South Sudan, pointing to price inconsistencies for the same goods in different shops as evidence.
He said this practice is in contrast to its global application.
“Free market all over the world is being misused in South Sudan. Because if Itell you now, I’ll go to the market if you can answer this question of mine. I get my pen in one shop for 10,000, in another shop for 15,000, and in another shop for 20,000. Why? Because of this misuse of a free market,” he wondered.
Complementing this push for market integrity, Commissioner General of South Sudan Revenue Authority (SSRA), Simon Akuei Deng, stated that the commission has taken crucial steps to reduce the number of illegal roadblocks along the Juba–Nimule Road.
Commissioner Akuei further revealed that the commission is nearing 90% digitization of the country’s taxation system as part of an economic reform initiative.
He added that the digitization will help the agency combat illegal taxation along the borders, emphasizing the need for total removal of all illegal checkpoints.
“We have not eliminated them all because some of them stay in the bush where there is no town, and when they hear the truck sounds coming, they jump onto the road, and they put up the rope, but still it is being fought. We have two vehicles moving along the road, and when they are found, they are arrested,” Akuei said.
In response, the National Minister of Trade and Industry, Atong Kuol Manyang, pledged that the ministry will “utilize the existing legal trade framework and, where necessary, introduce new ones, aiming to stabilize the markets.”
