The Minister of Finance and Economic Planning Agery Tissa Sabuni says the delays in salary payment of government employees will continue for the next two to three month. Civil servants in different parts of the country have raised concerns of not receiving salaries in the past few months. Addressing a press conference in Juba today, Minister Sabuni attributed the problem to the huge loans that the government had taken during the period of oil shutdown. He says the loans amounts to more than four billion US dollars. “The domestic borrowing to the tune of 4.5 billion must again be paid out of both domestic collection of non-oil revenue as well as oil revenues. Now the foreign borrowing was denominated on the sale of South Sudanese oil with the revenue directly going to where we borrowed and it happened that we borrowed from oil companies. So as I speak the payment for four shipments have not come our way, they are all gone to those companies that we borrowed from. And yet we must pay Sudan what it deserves because that borrowing and that channeling of the funds away from us is none of Sudan’s business. “ Meanwhile, the Minister of Cabinet Affairs Martin Eilia Lomuro called on citizens to report to trader who has increased prices of any commodity to the nearest police station. The call comes after residents of Gurae in Juba stoned government vehicles today morning in protest of increase in price of a barrel of water by tank owners. Prices of number of commodities have increased following last week’s announcement of devaluation of the pound but despite the reversal of the decision some traders continue to sell at high prices. Minister Lomuro warned of tough action against anyone exploiting citizens. “It is criminal if you just increase prices for political games, citizens are allowed to report if they feel they are being exploited. Laws anyway in the world, it is like that, so there no citizens wanting the law to say this bread is ten pounds. The question of NGOs paying at 4.5, you can see, even NGOs- International bodies.”
Posted on: Wed, 20 Nov 2013 15:33:18 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015