South Sudan to collect taxes from hotels, camps

Feb 21, 2007 (JUBA) — The semi-autonomous south Sudan government will levy taxes on hotels and tent camps in the capital Juba for the first time since the end of the country’s civil war, a tax official said on Wednesday.

‘This will be the first time in the history of Southern Sudan that VAT (value added tax) will actually be collected,’ Director General of Taxation Ayom Mach Jok told Reuters.

Although laws had been in place for the collection of the tax before, they were not implemented during the 21-year north-south civil war, he said.

After the end of the war in 2005, thousands of new Sudanese government workers, southern returnees and foreigners poured into the capital, and due to a severe housing crunch many were put up in the new hotels and tent camps.

Jok said the 10 percent tax would be retroactive from July 1, 2005, and would be levied on accommodation and sales of beverages and tobacco. He said hotels had been briefed on the decision.

‘We have the numbers of rooms and so we can use this to calculate what we can expect,’ said Jok, who expected to collect the tax from 41 registered camps and hotels.

(Reuters)