Following a dispute over transport charges that impeded aid deliveries, South Sudan announced on Friday that UN agencies and other organizations would be exempt from taxes on humanitarian goods.
The United Nations had urged the government to remove these taxes, which had hindered humanitarian supplies reaching over 60,000 people. Since February, the government had imposed various charges, including a fuel levy and electronic tracking fees on trucks transporting goods.
South Sudan’s Finance and Planning Minister, Awow Daniel Chuang, issued an exemption order, stating that UN specialized agencies, humanitarian organizations, and diplomatic missions operating in the country would not be required to pay taxes and customs duties on imported goods for humanitarian purposes or their activities.
However, companies contracted to the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) would not be exempt from these taxes.
The UN had warned that maintaining these taxes could increase the number of affected people to 140,000 by the end of May. These measures were said to add $339,000 per month to the cost of food assistance and air operations.
South Sudan, despite its oil riches, remains one of the world’s poorest nations, grappling with a severe humanitarian crisis marked by lawlessness, violence, political instability, and natural disasters. About nine million people, including 1.6 million children, require assistance, with the situation described by the UN as dire.
The crisis is exacerbated by the return of hundreds of thousands of South Sudanese refugees fleeing Sudan’s conflict.
UNMISS, initially deployed for a year upon South Sudan’s independence, has had its mandate repeatedly extended as the nation navigates successive crises.
