South Sudan 3rd May 2024 It has been apparent in the last one week or so that the Diplomatic and Humanitarian Communities in the Republic of South Sudan have raised through conventional as well as unconventional mechanism a series of concerns citing what they keep referring to as “illicit” taxes on humanitarian and Diplomatic goods, and therefore issuing threats of stopping humanitarian operations in the Republic of South Sudan. The Government of the Republic of South Sudan therefore takes this opportunity to serve the International Community and all concerned parties with this official government position as a matter of policy.
Whereas the Government of the Republic of South Sudan asserts that there is no reason and basis whatsoever for the diplomatic and humanitarian communities to hop from one government office to the other and issuing unreasonable and threatening statements;
Cognizant of the legal and policy frameworks (such as the Transitional Constitution of the Republic of South Sudan, Convention of immunities and privileges, Status of Force Agreement, International Humanitarian Law etc) which directly and indirectly govern the conducts and operations of the diplomatic corps and humanitarian actors in South Sudan;
Aware of the looming humanitarian predicaments that a big section of South Sudanese people is subjected to because of both natural and man-made reasons;
Acknowledging also the Government’s responsibilities to enhance non-oil revenue collection in order to increase government ability to provide services to its citizens and minimize dependency on humanitarian aids;
Pursuant to the spirit of mutual respect to each other within the framework of laws and policies;
The Government of the Republic of South Sudan through all its concerned and relevant institutions hereby condemn the recent uncalled-for alarm raising by the humanitarian and diplomatic entities and the misuse of the terms, taxes and fees interchangeable to the extent of undermining and ignoring the meanings of the terms as stipulated in the laws and policies. The Government therefore condemns the persistence by the concerned actors to use unconventional mechanisms and more often than not bypassing government protocols by hopping from one government office to another to the extent of creating communication breakdown. The conducts of foreign diplomats walking in and out of various government institutions without the guidance of the Ministry of Foreign Affair has been a behavior which has been observed over a long period of time in South Sudan and has often undermined the good intentions for which government protocols have been established. Above all, the ill-behaved press releases made by the Embassies created distortions of the South Sudanese laws on exemptions granted to the United Nations,
UN Specialized agencies, diplomatic missions, or other international donors and their contractors. In the press releases, the said Embassies also made sweeping accusations against, inter alia, the government’s recent reforms endeavor to introduce measures which aim at bolstering compliance, countering tax evasions/fraud and preventing smuggling of illicit goods. Above all some high-level foreign Diplomats issued threats of pulling of mutually agreed ad hoc bodies such as the Public Finance Management Oversight Committee. Thus, the Government declares that;
- Never at any points in the various Ministerial Orders by the Ministry of Finance and Planning and the Ministry of Trade and Industries regarding charges and fees for services rendered by contracted companies has it been mentioned that humanitarian and diplomatic communities are to pay. The statement in one of the Orders which says that “all concerned partners are hereby requested to assist in the enforcement of these regulations and all importers and exporters with no exceptions must comply” is very clear. The usage of the words importers and exporters apply to traders and business entities but not humanitarian and diplomatic entities.
- There are exceptions and it is must be clearly noted that the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) in particular has been exempted from payments of taxes, charges and fees to the governments as stated in Article IV (14) that “UNMISS and its members and contractors, together with vehicles, vessels and aircrafts, including vehicles, vessels and aircrafts of contractors used exclusively in the performance of their services for UNMISS, may use roads, bridges, rivers, canals and other waters, port facilities, airfields and airspaces without the payment of any form of monetary contributions, dues, tolls. User fees, airport taxes, parking fees, overflights fees, port fees or charges, including wharfage and compulsory pilotage charges.” It is equally imperative to seriously note that the United Nations Mission in South Sudan in the very SOFA has not been exempted from payment of charges to service providers which are meant for services rendered. The same article IV (14) of SOFA clearly states that: “However, UNMISS and its contractors will not claim exemption from charges which are in fact charges for services rendered, it being understood that such charges shall be charged at the most favorable rates.” Thus, by law UNMISS and its contractors are not exempted from charges and fees levied by contracted companies for services such as the e-petroleum, the Electronic Cargo Tracking Note and Certificate of Conformity because these are services rendered for mutual benefits.
- The services rendered by the contracted companies are of critical importance to the Government of South Sudan because South Sudan cannot continue to be a humanitarian destination in perpetuity. South Sudan as a country can break out of the chronic humanitarian crises if it is able to enhance its tax collection among other measures. This goal can be achieved when systems and measures are put in place which can provide visibility and accountability for all good imported into the country regardless of whether they are exempted or not. The Government of Republic of South Sudan and its authorized institution is seeking visibility of and accountability for all goods imported and exported into and out of the country regardless of whether they are exempted or not. The Government of the Republic of South Sudan equally seeks visibility and accountability for all exempted humanitarian and Diplomatic goods that enter into the country so that the right goods and values are exempted because at the end of the day, the value of the goods exempted automatically become the value of Government’s contribution towards humanitarian assistance to its citizens.
- Never at any point has the government through its relevant authorities denied the diplomatic and humanitarian entities exemptions except in an event when these very entities through their contractors abuse the very exemptions that are granted to them. It is therefore important to remind ourselves of the various incidences where the international communities have either abused or undermined the reciprocal goodness of the Republic of South Sudan. Just one case in point was when in 2014, UNMISS transported a cache of weapons without notifying the authorities in the Republic of South Sudan and also falsified the content of the weigh bill. This cache of weapons was later on detected and all it took was for UNMISS to apologize. So, what is wrong about the government contracting companies that can help the government obtain visibility of the goods imported into the country in order to avoid importation of illicit goods? What is wrong if the government seeks for every importer and exporter to account for all the goods being imported into the country regardless of whether or not the goods are exempted?
- The Government of the Republic of South Sudan will continue to adhere to the existing legal and policy frameworks which governors the relationships between the Government and the humanitarian and diplomatic entities. The Government of the Republic of South Sudan is also a party to the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on the 13th February 1946. The extant law on exemptions to diplomatic missions/donor agencies are clear. Article 169(9) of the Transitional Constitution of the Republic of South Sudan, 2011 (as amended) requires that all taxes and duties (and inversely, exemptions) should be created by law. With respect to exemptions on goods imported by diplomatic missions and donor agencies and their contractors, all the tax and customs legislations (section 103 on excise tax and section 111 on sales tax) of the Taxation Act, 2009 (as amended from time to time) and (section 55(1)(k) of the Customs Service Act, 2013 (as amended from time to time) require that an agreement should first be reached with the Republic of South Sudan for the goods of Diplomatic/Donor Agencies or their contractors to be exempted from payment of excise tax, sales tax and customs levies. So far, the Republic of South Sudan has signed a couple of Agreements such as: (i) the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) with the United Nations Mission in South Sudan on the 8th August 2011; the Economic and Technical Cooperation Agreement with the United States of America signed on the 11th September 2012 and others not necessarily mentioned here. In those agreements, the Government of the Republic of South Sudan consented to the grant of exemption to goods imported by the UN, UN agencies, the USA, its donor agencies and contractors. The Government of the Republic of South Sudan has therefore not and will not impose taxes on these entities contrary to the claims by these entities in which they used the word taxes and charges or fees interchangeably.
- The Government of the Republic of South Sudan further urges all the humanitarian and diplomatic entities to desist from misuse of words and languages which are not in conformity with the standard norms of engagement and partnership. The case in point is the uncalled-for statement by the representative of the UN OCHA in a meeting where she referred to contracted companies that are officially mandated to render services to the government as cartels. Such reference seriously undermines the mutual respect and the spirit of partnerships. The Government furthers urges the humanitarian and diplomatic entities to avoid reaching conclusion prior to them seeking clarification from the government and issue press releases through main stream media and social media which are contrary to best diplomatic norms and standards. The government finally urges all humanitarian and diplomatic entities to respect the government hierarchy and desist from seeking audiences with almost everybody in the country without using the existing channels of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Such acts of maneuvers from one government office to the other without the usage of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs guided channels can be construed to be espionage and disrespect of the Government’s protocol.
- In conclusion, the humanitarian and diplomatic entities and their good remain exempted with exception of UNMISS and its contracted companies which are not exempted from the payment of charges and fees for services rendered by the government contracted companies as per Article IV section 14 of the Status of Forces Agreement. The said services include the E-Petroleum Accreditation, the Electronic Cargo Tracking Note and the Certificate of Conformity. Similarly, all other humanitarian and diplomatic entities must comply and obtain these services free of charge in order to enhance government’s visibility of the goods being imported in order to calculate the exemption value accurately as a means for mutual accountability.
