Food prices on the rise as heavy rain hampers traffic to Bentiu

By Bonifacio Taban Kuich

August 7, 2013 (BENTIU) – Prices of food commodities and non-food items have sky-rocketed in Bentui in the last two weeks due to heavy rains that have interrupted traffic on roads leading to and out of the state capital.

Despite the heavy rains already making the movement of goods difficult, merchants in Bentiue and Rubkotna accuse local officials in the state of heavily taxing their goods.

The Traders blame taxation and the rising costs of transportation from Unity state for the increase in the prices of commodities.

Bentiu trader Abdi Abdallah, who deals in sorghum, sugar and maize flour, says high taxation by officials in the state has forced traders to increase prices in order to make a profit.

“If taxation goes down, prices will be go down”, said Abdallah, adding that even if trader transports goods by boat, the costs are still high forcing them to transfer costs to the consumer leading to price increase.

Before the rains interrupted transportation, a sack of sorghum cost 200 South Sudanese pounds (SSP) but this has now risen to 300 pounds. Abdi Abdallah attributes the price rise to the increased cost of transportation.

“Sometimes the transportation is very high”, he said.

State director of taxation Martin Nhial Ruei says the bad road has offered traders an opportunity to raise their prices saying traders do so every year.

“If roads go bad, prices of all items or commodities sold in the markets will be increased by traders and this is not the first time. It happens every year. We as the government we have no option but to reduce the prices in the markets meanwhile the interest of traders is to get profit”, Ruei said.

Ruei denied accusations by traders that the state government has imposed exorbitant charges on traders saying that it is only Unity state where food comedies get lower charges.

“The taxes we collect from Unity state are not increased, if you study the situation at various states in South Sudan, you will find that they collect 25%. We only collect 5%. If you look at this situation, you will find that we are not charging them much more”, said Ruei.

Ruei warned both national and foreigners traders to refrain from cheating local consumers who buy food from their markets.

“What we have seen here is that these traders are very clever. If they see you coming from deep villages they tend to charge you more than those living in towns. Even now in the markets for 100 Kgs of sorghum they charge up to 550 SSP even without taxation on sorghum. This is very wrong”, he said.

Tut Ngundeng Nyuon a resident in Bentiu asked the government to have dialogue with the traders so they can make commodities affordable.

“In the markets prices of commodities have increased. We are encouraging government to talk with traders to reduce prices, and I know there are group of people who do not care about high prices but we civilians are urging to reduce the prices”, said Nyuon.

South Sudan imports goods and commodities from neighbouring East Africa countries. But heavy rains have made it difficult for these goods to reach some of the states as a result of in accessible or difficult to access roads.

Recently the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned that heavy rains threatened to make most roads in South Sudan impassable.

(ST)